Dispensing systems with security locks

ABSTRACT

A dispensing device provides improved security and risk management through the inclusion of a security lock. The security lock may require authentication of a user as a condition for dispensing a dispensable included in a container of the dispensing device. The dispensable may include a consumable unit.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/800,973 filed on Mar. 15, 2013, theentire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The disclosure generally relates to dispensing systems with securitylocks for security and risk management.

SUMMARY

A dispensing device provides improved security and risk managementthrough the inclusion of a security lock. The security lock may requireauthentication of a user as a condition for dispensing a dispensableincluded in a container of the dispensing device. The dispensable mayinclude a consumable unit.

In one aspect, a device includes a container configured to holdconsumable units, a mechanism to dispense individual doses of theconsumable units from the container, a mechanical interface includingone or more mechanical registration features to removably andreplaceably insert the device into a base, and a security lock requiringauthentication of a user as a condition for dispensation of one of theconsumable units.

In another aspect, a device includes a container configured to holdconsumable units, a mechanism to dispense individual doses of theconsumable units from the container, a user input to manually activatethe mechanism, a machine input separate from the user input actuatableby a machine coupled to the device to activate the mechanism to dispenseone of the consumable units, and a mechanical interface including one ormore mechanical registration features to removably and replaceablyinsert the device into the machine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of thedevices, systems, and methods described herein will be apparent from thefollowing description of particular embodiments thereof, as illustratedin the accompanying figures, where like references numbers refer to likestructures. The figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis insteadbeing placed upon illustrating the principles of the devices, systems,and methods described herein.

FIGS. 1-5 show a cartridge with a dispensing trigger.

FIGS. 6-10 show a cartridge with dispensing trigger.

FIG. 11 shows a palm-press dispensing mechanism.

FIG. 12 shows a spring-slider dispensing mechanism.

FIG. 13 shows a spring-slider dispensing mechanism.

FIG. 14 shows a rotational dispensing mechanism.

FIG. 15 shows a rotational dispensing mechanism.

FIG. 16 shows a holder.

FIG. 17 shows a holder.

FIG. 18 shows a base.

FIG. 19 shows a base.

FIG. 20 shows a base.

FIG. 21 shows a base.

FIG. 22 illustrates functions of a user interface for managingdispensables.

FIG. 23 shows a base for dispensing items.

FIG. 24 shows a base for dispensing items.

FIG. 25 shows a base for dispensing items.

FIG. 26 shows a base for dispensing items.

FIG. 27 shows a clip for dispensing items.

FIG. 28 shows a clip for dispensing items.

FIG. 29 shows a clip for dispensing items.

FIG. 30 shows a clip for dispensing items.

FIG. 31 shows a clip for dispensing items.

FIG. 32 illustrates cloud based functions of a system for managingdispensables.

FIG. 33 illustrates functions of a user dashboard.

FIG. 34 shows illustrates functions of an administrator dashboard.

FIG. 35 illustrates functions of a healthcare professional dashboard.

FIG. 36 illustrates a system for managing consumables for a user.

FIG. 37 illustrates different views of a cartridge and clip.

FIG. 38 shows a system for managing consumables.

FIG. 39 shows a method for synchronizing scheduling data anddispensables data among various devices.

FIG. 40 shows a method for managing user associations with systemcomponents.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

All documents mentioned herein are hereby incorporated by reference intheir entirety. References to items in the singular should be understoodto include items in the plural, and vice versa, unless explicitly statedotherwise or clear from the text. Grammatical conjunctions are intendedto express any and all disjunctive and conjunctive combinations ofconjoined clauses, sentences, words, and the like, unless otherwisestated or clear from the context. Thus, the term “or” should generallybe understood to mean “and/or” and so forth.

Recitation of ranges of values herein are not intended to be limiting,referring instead individually to any and all values falling within therange, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value withinsuch a range is incorporated into the specification as if it wereindividually recited herein. The words “about,” “approximately,” or thelike, when accompanying a numerical value, are to be construed asindicating a deviation as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skillin the art to operate satisfactorily for an intended purpose. Ranges ofvalues and/or numeric values are provided herein as examples only, anddo not constitute a limitation on the scope of the describedembodiments. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language(“e.g.,” “such as,” or the like) provided herein, is intended merely tobetter illuminate the embodiments and does not pose a limitation on thescope of the embodiments. No language in the specification should beconstrued as indicating any unclaimed element as essential to thepractice of the embodiments.

In the following description, it is understood that terms such as“first,” “second,” “above,” “below,” and the like, are words ofconvenience and are not to be construed as limiting terms.

The drawings are provided as an aid to understanding the followingdisclosure. The drawing are not necessarily to scale, and are notrepresentative of preferred embodiments of the subject matter describedherein unless otherwise stated to the contrary or clear from thecontext.

While the following description provides detailed embodiments ofmethods, systems, and devices for managing consumable items, it will beunderstood that the specific embodiments described herein are providedby way of example and not limitation, and that various aspects of thisdisclosure may have additional applications independent from those thatare described. For example, the systems and methods described herein maybe adapted to any environment where liquids, solids, powders,suspensions, and the like are controllably dispensed on anypredetermined or ad hoc schedule such as a chemical, pharmaceutical orlife sciences laboratory or a packaging facility for customdeliverables. All such variations are intended to fall within the scopeof this disclosure.

DEFINITIONS

The term “dispensable” and related terms such as “dispensable unit” areintended to refer broadly to an item, combination of items, composition,component, material, compound or the like that can be dispensed in unitor continuous form.

While a “dispensable” may be any item that can be dispensed, the term“consumable” or “consumable unit” is intended to refer to dispensablesthat are intended to be consumed by a user. Consumables are intended toinclude a wide array of ingestible consumable items and form factors forsame. For example, consumable units may include one or more of pills,capsules, tablets, chewables, lozenges, dissolvables, sprinkles,dissolve-in-mouth micro-capsules, orally disintegrating tablets,chewable tablets (including jelly beans, gummies, and the like), gums,and so forth, as well as continuous form consumables such as liquids orpowders, solutions, pastes, and suspensions, and combinations thereof.The consumables may also or instead include items provided as freepowders, powder sachets, liquids, liquid sachets, vials, cups, cases,other storage forms, and so forth. More generally, the consumable unitsmay be any composition for consumption in bulk, individual, individualpre-packaged, group pre-packaged and/or mixed item package form. Forbulk form compositions, the “consumable unit” may be a predeterminedportion for dispensing such as a teaspoon of liquid, a number of pills,a milligram of powder or the like, or a similar predetermined portionfor dispensing or mixing into a compound locally created for dispensingprior to or after dispensing.

Similarly, the content of each consumable unit may vary significantlyand may include but are not limited to prescription medication,non-prescription or over-the-counter medication, nutritionalsupplements, vitamin supplements, mineral supplements, veterinarymedications, veterinary nutritional supplements, and so forth.Consumable units may also or instead include food and other items suchas sugar, seeds, candies, snacks, pet treats, or other foods and thelike, as well as any other pharmaceuticals, neutraceuticals, or otherconsumable items not identified above. These consumables that areintended to be ingestible are also referred to herein as “ingestibles”or “ingestible units.”

While consumables may include items for consumption in the conventionsense of ingestion as described above, consumables may also or insteadinclude disposable items or the like that are intended for one time use.Thus, as used herein a “disposable” may be any consumable intended for ause other than ingestion. This may, for example, include disposablemedical items such as dressings, bandages, Band-Aids, gauze, syringes,thermometers, individually packaged units of antibacterials and thelike, as well as other items such as hearing aids, contact lenses and soforth that can be dispensed in individual units for one time use. Thismay also or instead include continuous form items not intended foringestion including personal care items such as toothpaste, toothpicks,soap, sanitizer, moisturizer, cotton swabs and the like, as well asother household items such as glue, batteries, latex gloves, and soforth. All such disposables may be a form of consumable as those termsare used herein, and consumables may similarly be a form of dispensable.

It will be understood that while the foregoing terms (dispensable,consumable, ingestible, disposable) may be variously used in thisdisclosure to describe embodiments of the invention, the inventiveconcept generally applies to any and all such dispensables, and anydescription of one type of dispensable will be understood to refer toall such dispensables except where specifically noted to the contrary.Thus for example, a container for consumable items will be understood tosimilarly teach a container for dispensable items, a container foringestible items, and a container for disposable items. As anotherexample, a schedule for delivery of a medical prescription will beunderstood to similarly teach a schedule for delivery of anydispensable, ingestible, consumable, and disposable, with suitablemodifications being readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in theart.

Another term used frequently in the following description is “schedule.”As used herein, this is intended to refer to any time-based orevent-based regime for using dispensables. This may, for example,include a single/one-off/ad-hoc trigger or time/date, or this mayinclude any number of one time, periodic, and/or recurring events. Thus,for example, a schedule may specify an event once per day for one week,or three times a day for two weeks, or twice a day indefinitely. It willalso be appreciated that a schedule may include events defined withrespect to specific days or times of day, or events that are dependenton some other event. Thus for example, a schedule may indicate an eventthat is to occur once a day before breakfast, or three times a day aftermeals. While dosing regimens for medicines, nutritional supplements andthe like are contemplated as schedules, it will be understood that aschedule may be provided for any dispensable contemplated herein. Ingeneral, a schedule may be a data structure stored in a memory in anysuitable form for use in managing dispensables as contemplated herein,and it will be appreciated that a user may maintain any number ofindependent or interrelated schedules, and that a schedule mayconversely specify events for any number of users, all without departingfrom the scope of this disclosure.

It will also be observed that a variety of terms are used to describethe hierarchical and modular structural components of a dispensablemanagement system such as containers, cartridges, dispensers, clips, andbases. It should be understood that these are terms of convenience onlyand are not intended to be limiting. Instead, a wide range of systemarchitectures are contemplated, including various distributions ofprocessing circuitry and hardware that performs various tasks such asscheduling, notification, communications, dispensing, and so forth.Thus, for example, mechanical systems for dispensing dispensable may beintegrated into a base, a dispenser, a clip, and/or a container.Similarly, processing for maintaining schedules, monitoring containercontents and the like may be integrated into a base, a dispenser, aclip, and/or a container. More generally, a reference to any componentof a dispensing system as contemplated herein should not be understoodto require any particular hardware, processing circuitry, orfunctionality, and similarly should not be understood to exclude anyparticular hardware, processing circuitry, or functionality except wherespecifically stated otherwise.

Thus as used herein, the term base may refer to a unit that provides asimple mechanical holder for a number of dispensers or the like. Inanother aspect, the base may be a dispensing base that includesdispensing infrastructure shared by any number of containers,dispensers, and the like, such as a common chute and dispensing hardwarefor multiple dispensables. In another aspect, the base may usedispensing hardware from each dispenser or the like attached thereto,while providing enhanced functionality such as scheduling andnotification based on an associated user and attached dispensers. Inanother aspect, a base may be configured for use with a singledispensable, while providing integrated scheduling, notification and thelike as contemplated herein. All such variations are intended to fallwithin the meaning of a “base” as that term is used herein.

In a similar fashion, a dispenser, cartridge, or clip may provide anylevel of integration with respect to containing dispensables, dispensingdispensable, managing schedules, providing notifications and so forth.At the same time, any particular function related to the managed systemmay be performed by a dispenser, cartridge, clip, or base, or bedistributed in any useful manner among these modular components of thesystem. Thus the use of any one of these terms in the followingdescription should be understood to contemplate all such devices, exceptwhere a specific form of cooperation between two such components isexplicitly described.

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, it is broadlycontemplated that a container may hold dispensables in bulk or unitform. A cartridge or dispenser may house a container and provide orsupport dispensing functions. A base may provide a desktop unit or thelike to removably and replaceably hold any number of containers,cartridges, or dispensers, and may also provide various degrees ofaugmentation to management of dispensables. A clip may also optionallybe employed as an electromechanical interface between a base on onehand, and any container, cartridge, or dispenser on the other.

Cartridge of Consumables

A cartridge may be a single-dose, single-unit, multi-dose, multi-unit orcontinuous/burst dispensing container, which may be fully disposable,partially disposable, or fully reusable.

The cartridge as described may provide a machine input to interact withone or more configuration devices, such as a holder, a base, a dispenserand/or a clip. A holder may store cartridges or other attached devices.A base may manage, dispense and/or store consumables from attachedcartridges or other devices. A base may manage, dispense and/orrepackage consumables from attached cartridges or other devices. A clipmay be a lightweight, mobile attachment to one or more cartridges.

The cartridge may have an aesthetic design which may have either apolygon or a round base, where one or more reservoirs 100 may hold theconsumable units. The cartridge may have multiple reservoirs, wherereservoirs may accept the same or different media/media properties.

There may be a single exterior cartridge form for all consumable mediawithin, regardless of size and properties of media (e.g. small pills vs.large capsules vs. liquid sachets vs. free powders vs. liquids).

Single dose dispensing may be achieved in one embodiment by depressing abutton horizontally on one of the side faces; in another embodiment bypressing the entire top section of the cartridge down into the user'spalm (FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5); in another embodimentby depressing a button near the top 101 (FIG. 6, FIG. 7, FIG. 8, FIG. 9and FIG. 10).

The cartridge may offer similar protection characteristics to existingpill bottles (e.g. against moisture), as all or some of the followingmay apply: (1) Use of same or similar plastic materials (2) Tamperproofaluminum foil seal on reservoir (3) Cotton wool inside reservoir toprevent transportation damage to media (4) Desiccant for moisturemanagement, which may be in a small bag in the reservoir or in aseparate desiccant chamber.

The desiccant may be part of a functional desiccant component that mayperform functions beyond desiccation, including but not limited tocommunication with the clip, base, dispenser or other devices (via RFID,NFC or other short or long range communication technologies embeddedwithin functional desiccant) and consumable volume detection (viacapacitance fields).

The reservoir may have a door on one of its faces, which could allow forusers to add or remove any number of consumable units, and which mayhave a visual indication upon it that warns users not to insertincompatible media. In one embodiment, this door may be a simple facethat swings open on a hinge once a latch is release. In anotherembodiment, this door may be a face cap-like piece that snaps into placeand may or may not be removable.

The label may be on any of the faces of the cartridge, to ensurevisibility when in the clip, base and dispenser.

The cartridge may have a specific lock-and-key connection/attachment (onany of its faces/sides) to the clip, holder, base or dispenser. In oneembodiment, this lock-and-key connection may be 3 differently-sizedprongs distributed horizontally and asymmetrically about the verticalaxis of the cartridge. In another embodiment, this connection may be aset of electromagnets that may be activated by the clip, dispenser, baseor holder upon the cartridge touching. In yet another embodiment, thisconnection may be a combination of prongs and electromagnets.

The cartridge may have electrical contacts/touch points (which connectto an EPROM/EEPROM embedded within), NFC or RFID sticker, or QR code onlabel/exterior for communication with the clip, base or dispenser.

Moving parts of dispensing mechanisms may have unique colorsystem/aesthetic/branding.

The reservoir may be transparent or translucent or have a window (a holeor a transparent material) on one of its faces to allow users to viewrough proportion of consumables remaining in the cartridge, or may havea physical display of a counter showing exact number of consumable unitsremaining.

The reservoir may have copper foil or plate on some faces, eitherimplanted within the reservoir form or within a sticker that is attachedto the reservoir, in order to enable dose counting via capacitance fieldmeasurement.

The reservoir may hold any number of consumable units depending on size,or one continuous form of consumable media (where consumables mayinclude, but are not limited to, pills, capsules, free powders, powdersachets, liquids, liquid sachets, sprinkles and dissolve-in-mouthmicro-capsules). The reservoir may hold any category of unit-form orcontinuous-form consumables, including but not limited toover-the-counter medication (e.g. Cold/Cough/Allergy, Pain/Analgesic,Gastro-Intestinal, Sleep, Eye Care, Weight Control, Feminine Hygiene),Vitamins/Minerals/Supplements (e.g. multi-vitamins, energy supplements,one-a-days, Calcium, fish oils, men's/women's health pills, combinationenergy/nutrition/health products), prescription medications (e.g.Lipitor, other brands, generics), veterinary medications/nutritionalsupplements.

While a single reservoir is depicted, it will be understood that acartridge may have any number of reservoirs, and may be configured forindependent dispensing from each reservoir, or dispensing in combinationfrom multiple reservoirs. The reservoirs may be configured for either orboth of similar or different media types.

The cartridge may have one of several single-unit dispensing mechanisms,of which 5 are listed here: (1) Palm-press: User presses cartridge intopalm with their other hand, and a unit is dispensed into the palm, basedon durable agitatorand asymmetrical chute to prevent jamming andmis-dosing (2) Spring-slider: User pulls trigger, one unit falls out,based on durable cavity & agitating wedge technique to prevent jammingand mis-dosing (3) Rotational: User twists exterior cylinder, unitsalign within, every 120 degrees one unit falls out; unit alignmentprevents jamming and mis-dosing (4) Blister-doser: User actuation pushesblister strip forward and severs material to dispense single blisterunit (5) Thumb-press: User depresses top of cartridge with thumb, andone unit is presented at the bottom of the cartridge. 3 of thesemechanisms are explained in more detail below.

For the palm-press mechanism design there may be four parts. Thecontainer 150 may connect to the chute 151 using a snap retainingfeature. The agitator 152 may be attached to the cap 153 via a similarsnap retaining feature. The agitator 152 and cap 153 may move inrelation to the container 150 and chute 151. When the user presses thecartridge against their palm, the agitator 152 and cap 153 may move upinto the chute 151. The resulting agitation of contained unitsfacilitate units dropping down and moving through a hole within agitator152 and cap 153 to exit at the base the through the cap. The chute 151is asymmetrical such that its bottom hole is not in the center, andthis, combined with the off-center asymmetric shape of the agitator 152,may prevent jamming due to concentration of units at the cartridgecenter (from uniform gravitational pull). The cap 153 may contain arocker mechanism that can fit only one unit.

For the spring-slider mechanism design, there may be two pieces—the body160 and the arm 161—which may be connected (e.g. by glue or by moldingentire Cap as one piece) at the hinge. The user may manually push thearm 161 horizontally in towards the center of the body 160. This slidingaction aligns the arm's hole with the body's chute, allowing for unitrelease. Units in the body 160 may be aligned with their longest sidevertical, due to the tight fit of the chute 162. Pushing the arm 161 mayalso translate the agitator box 163 into the chute 162, which mayseparate the unit to be dispensed from other units. The agitator ramp164 on top of the agitator box 163 may push these other units back uptowards the reservoir (not shown, but vertically above the mechanismshown in FIG. 13 Error! Reference source not found.) with each push ofthe arm 161. Child proofing may be enabled by a latch on the body 160 ortabs that must be squeezed by the user for the arm 161 to freely move,or another method. The body 160 may be attached to the reservoir by asnapping mechanism. In some embodiments the mechanism as a whole may beoperated using one finger on one hand only.

For the rotational mechanism design, there may be three pieces that moverelative to each other. These pieces may be set one inside the other:the inner layer 170, the middle layer 171 and the outer layer 172, ofwhich the inner layer may be connected via screw thread to the reservoir(not shown, but vertically above the mechanism shown in FIG. 15). Theuser may rotate the outer layer 172. This action may be childproofed;the outer layer 172 may have gear teeth 173 that (when the outer layeris squeezed hard enough) make contact with the gear teeth on the middlelayer 173, allowing the twisting of the outer layer to rotate the middlelayer 171—but if the user does not squeeze, the gears do not engage. Thebase/dispenser may bypass this squeezing by engaging the middle layergear teeth 173 directly using an actuation arm. The rotation of themiddle layer 171 may align the middle layer hole with the inner layerholes 175 1, 2 or 3 times per full revolution (depending on the numberof inner layer holes). Alignment of holes 174 and 175 may allow units toexit the cartridge. Single unit dispensing may occur at each alignmentdue to inner layer pins adjacent to each inner layer hole which preventother units following the first as it exits. A parabolic centerprotrusion 176 may be connected to the middle layer 171 and may tend toalign units around the circumference of the bottom of the inner layer170. There may be an agitator arm 177, which may be connected to thecenter protrusion 176 and may sit above the middle layer hole 174, andwhose purpose may be to push one unit towards the exit hole whileforcing others away, in other words agitating them. There are protrudingrings 178 on the middle layer and outer layer which may allow the middlelayer 171 to snap irreversibly onto the outer layer 172 duringmanufacture.

All above single-dose dispensing mechanisms may work universally withall unit sizes, in one of several ways such as the 2 following: (1) Foreach grouping of unit size/shape, there may be slightly differentmechanism dimensions (achieved by slight variations on the mold toolingand manufacturing line), though the exterior form does not change at all(2) There may be one universal mechanism with a small collar within thatis adjusted on the packaging line for different groupings of unitsize/shape.

All above single-dose dispensing mechanisms may allow for a combinationof gravity fed and powered dispensing of consumables.

The same mechanism may be used when the cartridge is used independentlyor in concert with an attached clip, base or dispenser.

Actuation may be childproof, for example in the following way: beforetrigger can be pulled, side or top tab(s) must be depressed.

Besides the single dose dispensing mechanism, user may access consumablemedia by opening the door in reservoir and dispensing in bulk.

Each single dose dispense actuation may trigger a dose counter mechanismto increment. The dose counter may be a rotating horizontal or verticaldial. The cartridge may have a window or opening through which the dosecounter's current count is visible. The dose counter's count mayrepresent one of the following: (1) Total number of units taken outsince opening (2) Total number of units remaining Reliable counting maybe enabled in the following manner: (1) Dose exit cavity may have arocker mechanism that does not engage if a dose is not inside it, inother words, if the user actuates the dispenser but no dose comes out,the dose counter may not increment (2) Rocker mechanism at exit may notengage until the dose has left it, in other words, if the user does notextract the dispensed dose (assuming the dose has not left the rockermechanism), the dose counter may not increment.

Digital information may be stored on QR code, in NFC sticker, inEPROM/EEPROM chip embedded in cartridge form or on machine-readableimprint on the dose counter. Stored information may include, but is notlimited to (1) SKU # (2) Expiration date (3) SKU name (4) Milligrams perdose of SKU (5) Weight of empty SKU cartridge (6) Weight of single unitof SKU consumable (7) SKU warnings (8) SKU directions and guidance (9)Unique cartridge ID. There may be a specific format/encoding for digitalstorage of above information.

The cartridge may have powered electronics onboard.

The cartridge may have following display methods, which may bemulti-colored or monochromatic: non-touch screen, touch screen, LEDscreen, LCD screen, e-ink/e-paper screen, smartphone, desktop computerand tablet.

The cartridge may have LEDs/speakers/vibrational motors that provideaudiovisual (both human-audible and not) and vibrational feedback basedon input from bases, dispensers and clips.

The cartridge may have several ports for input/output communication,including but not limited to wireless/cellular internet (e.g. Wi-Fi,WiMAX, 3G, 4G, 4G LTE, RFID, NFC), wired internet (e.g. Ethernet), USB,media card (e.g. SD, CF, xD) and displays (e.g. HDMI, VGA, DVI, DisplayPort). The cartridge may automatically communicate or connect with cloud(see later section on cloud layer) via its communication ports.

Based on data from wireless access routers/towers/etc., or onboard GPS,or user input, the cartridge may automatically broadcast its location tocloud, or any base, dispenser, clip, cartridge or compatible smartdevice.

The supply chain may involve manufacture of cartridge using standardmolding and assembly lines/practices, with different molds for anycartridge parts that SKU-specific or SKU-family-specific. Cartridge datamay be printed onto cartridge via proprietary format QR code orprogrammed EPROM may be implanted into cartridge plastic. Standard highspeed packaging/bottling lines may pack pills, capsules, powders, powdersachets, liquids and liquid sachets of any weight and size into acartridge. The supply chain may handle repacking of mail orderpharmaceuticals into cartridges, and may interface with mail orderpharmacies to acquire Rx product.

In one aspect a container such as any of the containers above may beprovided without surrounding electromechanics for dispensingdispensables. This may, for example, be a simple container fordispensables that can be inserted into and removed from a dispenser suchas any of the dispensers described above, or inserted into and removedfrom a base or the like that provides dispensing functionality for thecontainer.

Simple Holder of Attachables

A holder may store attached cartridges and loaded/empty clips (whichamong other devices may be referred to as attachables).

The holder may have a welcoming and professional aesthetic design.

The holder may be powered or unpowered.

The holder may have modular design that enables add-on capability to beattached, as well as certain modules to be simply removed for easymaintenance/repair.

The holder may have internal shock mounts to prevent consumabledisturbance and damage. Holder may have secrecy door or electrochromaticdoor for privacy of stored consumables.

The holder may store one or multiple attachables in separate sockets 200(number of sockets depends on model of holder) or via one longplatform/shelf that can accommodate all attachables. The holder mayconnect to attachables via a lock-and-key or magnetic attachment (asdescribed earlier), which may be universal across all cartridges andclips.

Smart Base for Attachable Management

A base may manage, dispense and/or store consumables from attachedcartridges and loaded/empty clips (which among other devices may bereferred to as attachables), and communicate with cloud.

The base may have a welcoming and professional aesthetic design.

The base may be powered by line power or by a rechargeable/disposableinternal battery. In an embodiment with line power, a battery may enablethe base to run on backup power in the event of a power outage, whichallows the continued use and/or extraction of consumables within. Thismay be useful, for example, in scenarios where the consumable is apatient-necessitated prescription medicine.

The base may have a modular design that enables add-on capability to beattached, as well as certain modules to be simply removed for easymaintenance/repair.

The base may have internal shock mounts to prevent consumabledisturbance and damage. The base may furthermore have an accelerometer,which can detect large forces and accelerations on the device. Upon suchdetection, the base may perform additional safety and protectionfunctions to ensure that consumables are not disturbed or damaged,including but not limited to physical lockdown, activation of internaldampeners, alarm sounding, LED flashing, wireless notification, andemergency service alerting.

The base may have one or more secrecy doors or electrochromatic doorsfor privacy of stored consumables.

A fingerprint scanner (CMOS sensor) 300, face recognition camera, orother biometric identification system(s) may be present.

The base may have LEDs, screens, speakers and vibrational motors 301 formulti-colored audiovisual (both human-audible and not) and vibrationalnotifications and feedback (including but not limited to consumptionalerts, scheduled alerts and connection of an empty clip).

The base may have following input methods: touch of touchscreen 302,pressing of button, sliding finger over non-press button, voicecommands, touching of fingerprint reader 300, use of NFC or RFID forproximity detection. Base may have following display methods, which maybe multi-colored or monochromatic: non-touch screen, touch screen, LEDscreen 302, LCD screen 302, e-ink/e-paper screen 302, and mirroring toany external screen including that of a smartphone, desktop computer,and tablet. The base's e-ink/e-paper screen 302 may be sub-divided sothat updates of one division's screen are triggered by events relatingto only one attached cartridge.

The base's user interface functions (some represented in FIG. 22) may beas follows. The base's display may show/denote a wide variety ofinformation, including but not limited to consumable SKU name, SKUwarnings, SKU dose concentration, expiration date, notifications (e.g.need for replacement/reorder, non-adherence, software updates),advertising/marketing, user name, user consumption history (numerical orvisual/chart-based), user recommendations, consumables consumed andconsumable quantity remaining in cartridges. The base may allow users toset up an account (via cloud), and/or set up user profiles for eachindividual user. The base may allow users to schedule doses and setalerts, alarms and notifications via the interface (may also be done viacloud). The base may enable authentication in one or more ways,including but not limited to the following: (1) Passcode entry (2)Fingerprint recognition, via fingerprint scanner (3) Face recognition(via mounted camera) (4) Voice recognition. Authentication,authorization and usage permissions for each specific attachable may beenabled, disabled or overridden by account owners for specific users(may also be done via cloud). Users may set up e-commerce functions(e.g. automatic reordering) for specific cartridges on the base (mayalso be done via cloud). The base may use a “drag-and-drop” interfaceexperience, where an account owner may drag images (representingconsumable units or usage permissions, for example) onto images ofusers, where these images may be a default stock image or auser-uploaded image (via cloud). Example applications of this“drag-and-drop” interface on the base include the following: (1)Dragging consumable units to users, when base detects that a cartridgepreviously removed has been replaced on the base but with fewerconsumable units than before (see description below of enumeratormechanism below) (2) Dragging and bestowing usage permission forspecific SKUs/cartridges to users (3) Copying a dosage/alert schedulefrom one user to another (4) Dragging images of SKUs onto users topurchase or reorder or setup automatic reordering. Upon user input orafter defined timeout, the base may enter sleep mode to minimize powerconsumption.

The base may include a reader mechanism 303 which may read digitalinformation from attachables. The base's reader mechanism may functionin several ways, including but not limited to QR code reader (CMOSsensor), NFC or RFID sensor/reader, and touching of the base'selectrical contacts to electrical contacts on attachable. The base'sreader mechanism may be able to read from all attachables (i.e. 1 readermechanism for all or individual mechanisms for each attachable). Thebases reader mechanism may be able to distinguish one attachedattachable from another, as well as from unattached attachables.

Communication with attachables may be two-way, in which an attachablemay also receive and store information from the base. The base maycommunicate with a specific attachable to instruct it to glow, make asound or vibrate, potentially based on the following stimuli: (1)Cartridge consumables are depleted (2) Cartridge consumables haveexpired (3) The scheduled time to consume cartridge consumables hasarrived (scheduling is set via cloud). The base may have several furtherports for input/output communication, including but not limited towireless/cellular internet (e.g. Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G, 4G, 4G LTE, RFID,NFC), wired internet (e.g. Ethernet), USB, media card (e.g. SD, CF, xD)and displays (e.g. HDMI, VGA, DVI, DisplayPort).

The base may include an enumerator mechanism 304 which may determine thenumber of consumable doses (e.g. number of pills, doses of liquid)remaining in the attachable. The enumerator may be one of the followingmechanisms: (1) A setup of load cells on a support platform cantileverthat may weigh the cartridge and, using the known values of emptycartridge weight and single dose weight, calculate the number of singledoses remaining in the cartridge; this load cell setup may performrelative measurements and automatically calibrate and correct for drift(2) a capacitance field sensing setup that may detect capacitance fieldacross copper plates/foils embedded in opposite sides of cartridge. Ifattachable has its own enumerator mechanism, then the attachable'senumerator may determine the number of consumable doses instead of thebase's enumerator.

The base may store one or multiple attachables in separate sockets 305(number of sockets depends on model of base) or via one longplatform/shelf that can accommodate all attachables. The base mayconnect to attachables via a lock-and-key or magnetic attachment (asdescribed earlier), which may be universal across all cartridges andclips. attachable connection to base may include 5 phases (notnecessarily in this order): (1) Attachable attached/placed onto baseplatform/socket (2) Base's enumerator mechanism determines number ofdoses remaining in cartridge (3) Base's reader mechanism reads andinterprets digital information stored on attachable (4) Base begins torecharge battery of onboard attachable (inductively or not), ifapplicable (5) Audiovisual/vibrational feedback of connection processcompletion/attachable charging.

The base may have an integrated microcomputer, which may be an embeddedLinux or other system, and may perform these functions: (1) Processingof user interface functions listed above, including but not limited toinput from buttons and touchscreen(s), output to displays, userauthentication, audiovisual/vibrational feedback and notifications, andentering sleep mode (2) Processing of base's reader mechanism andenumerator mechanism functions listed above, and processing of thecartridge-connection process, including but not limited torecognition/processing of attachable upon connection and performingenumerator mechanism calculations (3) Firmware update by online/USBdrive/USB-to-computer (4) Download of internal memory (including but notlimited to user consumption and container inventory data) to USB/wiredconnection devices (5) Automatically communicate/connect with cloud (viaabove mentioned ports) (6) Tracking and processing dispensing by user,and caching user consumption metrics/settings in internal memory andsending frequent updates to cloud (7) Performing analytics on userdispensing/consumption data (8) Resolving conflicts with redundant dataon cloud (9) Sending or receipt of notifications to any device via anycommunication network (via ports) (10) Storage of rich user health data(including but not limited to age, gender, medical conditions) andtransfer to and from cloud (11) Check for SKU recall (through cloud)(12) Communication and working in concert with any other attachables,bases and dispensers.

Dispensing Base for Advanced Attachable Management

A dispensing base may manage, dispense and/or repackage consumables fromattached cartridges and loaded/empty clips (which along with otherdevices may be referred to as attachables), and communicate with cloudlayer.

The dispensing base may have a cuboidal design or any other suitableshape, and may incorporate all or some subset of the features describedherein including without limitation any combination of exterior formfeatures, interface functions, components, systems, subsystems,processing circuitry, sensors, and so forth described herein of the basedescribed above.

The dispensing base may include one or more attachments that may bedetached and used as independent mobile devices, including but notlimited to a holder, dispenser, and a manager of consumables, forexample, while the user is at work or is on travel. The dispensing basemay also or instead include any number of containers integrated into thebase for receiving bulk dispensables in unit or continuous form so thata user can refill containers of the dispensing base as needed. Thedispensing base may include an integrated dispensable delivery systemsuch as a shared dispensing mechanism and delivery chute, which can beused by various containers and attachables, or the dispensing base maybe configured operate dispensing mechanisms of various attachables forindependent delivery of dispensables from each attachment, or somecombination of these.

The dispensing base may include a reader mechanism configured to readdigital information from attachables, as described above for the base.

The dispensing base may include an enumerator mechanism which may beconfigured to determine the number of consumable doses remaining in eachattachable, as described above for the base.

The dispensing base may store one or multiple attachables in separatesockets 400 (number of sockets depends on model of dispensing base). Thedispensing base may connect to attachables via a lock-and-key ormagnetic attachment (as described earlier), which may be universalacross all cartridges and clips. Attachable connection to the dispensingbase may include these 5 phases (not necessarily in this order): (1)Attachable inserted and manually locked into an arrangement of supportplatforms (2) dispensing base's enumerator mechanism determines numberof doses remaining in cartridge (3) dispensing base's reader mechanismreads and interprets digital information stored on attachable (4)dispensing base begins to recharge battery of onboard attachable(inductively or not), if applicable (5) Dispensing actuation motors areelectronically activated to bring actuation arm in contact withattachable, ready for future dispensing.

The dispensing base may dispense single units or specified doses of anyconsumable medium, upon instruction from the user or as directed by aspecific regime. Dispensing may occur through releasing single units ormultiple units continuously in single unit bursts.

Dispensing via the base may bypass childproofing on attachable, so muchless mechanical force may be required to dispense, potentially in thefollowing ways: (1) Secondary attachment mechanism may connect toattachable and actuate dispensing mechanism without having to actuatethe childproof mechanism (2) dispensing base socket may actuate throughthe action of a user loading the attachable, and may hold down theattachable's childproofing mechanism, so no further force may berequired to bypass childproofing.

Dispensing output may allow for unassisted transfer of consumables fromall cartridges to one common dispensing point 401 or to multipledispensing points (e.g. one for each user, one for each consumable type,one for pills vs. liquids vs. powders); if one common dispensing point,the dispensing base may converge several chutes/tubes into one outputchute/tube.

The dispensing base may be able to, upon user input, package singledoses into to-go mini-packs, or chains/strips of mini-packs. Dispensingbase may be able to print, in a thermographic or other manner, on eachto-go mini-pack, potentially using an onboard printer.

The dispensing base may be able to heat liquids (including but notlimited to water) and mix certain consumable media (including but notlimited to powder-form consumables) with these liquids prior todispensing, potentially in a liquid chamber.

The dispensing base may be able to internally manufacture consumablemedia (e.g. pills, liquid mixtures) from raw consumable ingredients(e.g. powders, liquids) using a variety of methods, including but notlimited to pill pressing and liquid mixing.

The dispensing base may provide a simple mechanism for cleaning liquid-or powder-containing chambers/passages/nozzles.

The dispensing base may have an integrated microcomputer like thebase's, which may perform all or some subset of the functions that thebase's microcomputer does, as well as the following additional one:Processing and control of dispensing, packaging and compressionfunctions listed above, including but not limited to electronic controlof attachable dispensing actuation (via attachable-specific motor insocket) to release single consumable unit from specified cartridge uponuser input, control of which cartridge may dispense so multiplecartridges do not dispense simultaneously, and processing of number ofconsumable units to dispense based on dosage, user input and recommendedconsumable intake.

More generally, a base as contemplated herein may be a holder, a smartbase, or a dispensing base as described above, or any other device foruse with dispensables as contemplated herein, and may provide any degreeof integration, modularity, and functionality.

Clip for Cartridges

A clip may be a lightweight, mobile attachment to one or morecartridges, and may be fully disposable, partially disposable or fullyreusable. A clip with cartridge(s) attached is referred to as a loadedclip, without cartridge attached is referred to as an empty clip.

The clip may have a welcoming and clean aesthetic design.

The clip may be powered by line power, by rechargeable internal battery(which may be recharged by base or dispenser), by AAA battery (or othersize), by watch battery or by travel charger, including but not limitedto an induction battery charger.

The clip may incorporate all or some subset of theaudiovisual/vibrational, input, display and fingerprint/facialrecognition features of the base.

The clip may incorporate all or some subset of the interface functionsof the base described above (e.g. several types of digital display 500).

The clip may include a reader mechanism which may read digitalinformation from attachables, as described above for the base. Thismechanism may also or instead be a mechanical counter that incrementsupon successful dispensation.

Based on data from wireless access routers/towers/etc., or onboard GPS,or user input, the clip may automatically broadcast its location to thecloud layer or any base, dispenser, clip, cartridge or compatible smartdevice.

The clip may include an enumerator mechanism which may determine thenumber of consumable doses remaining in the attachable, as describedabove for the base.

The clip may provide an opening 501 to orient the clip to a cartridgesuch as any of the cartridges described above. The clip may connect tocartridge(s) via a specific lock-and-key or magnetic attachment (asdescribed earlier). The cartridge connection to the clip may includethese 4 phases (not necessarily in this order): (1) Clip attached tocartridge (2) Clip's enumerator mechanism determines number of dosesremaining in cartridge (3) Clip's reader mechanism reads and interpretsdigital information stored on cartridge (4) Clip locking mechanism iselectronically activated, ready for future authenticated dispensing.

Cartridge dispensing may include these 5 phases: (1) Before user picksup loaded clip, clip is powered down and the dispensing lock is in place(2) User picks up clip, powering device and activating fingerprintsensor (3) If authentication is enabled for this SKU/cartridge, clipprocessor verifies identification of user holding the device (4)Dispensing lock motor disengages (5) User can now single-dose dispenseusing the regular dispensing-actuation mechanism on cartridge. Thisprocess may subjectively be almost unnoticeable to the user: frompicking up device to dispensing lock disengaging may take less than 1second.

The clip may have an integrated microcomputer like the base's, which mayperform all or some subset of the functions that the base'smicrocomputer does.

In general, the clip 500 may provide an activation and managementinterface for a cartridge or container of dispensables. That is, theclip 500 may house a processor, display, buttons, and so forth forautonomous operation and dispensation, thus providing enhancedfunctionality to a container, cartridge, or the like. The clip 500 (or amobile base such as any of the bases described herein) may attach to aconsumable container or containers and provides powered, interactive,and networked functionality such as a count of contents, an amountremaining in a container, an alert concerning a schedule for anassociated user, and so forth.

Cloud Layer

The cloud may be a remote management system and may providedevice-agnostic functionality for the disclosed system's management,usage analytics, inventory management/e-commerce and interfacing withother medical/consumer systems. Some potential features of the cloud aredocumented in FIG. 32.

Many features may incorporate dynamic user data which may include but isnot limited to a user's preferences, personal goals, inventory, history,location, family/household and demographic data, language,financial/billing information and healthcare information (e.g. fromElectronic Medical Record or insurer).

The device-agnostic user interface may be a user dashboard thatencompasses the several user functions (data portal functions, dosingfunctions, e-commerce functions and settings management functions),which are all integrated into the user experience but may appear andoperate separately and independently on the user dashboard. Userdashboard is customized according to device it is displayed on. Somepotential features of the user dashboard are documented in FIG. 33.

Data portal functions for the user dashboard may include the following:(1) Viewing, editing, downloading and sharing of user consumptionhistory, in any format, including but not limited to CSV, PDF, XLS, XML,HTML subjectively aesthetically pleasing charts and graphs, sharing orposting onto social media portals such as Facebook and Twitter, andinterface experience (also present on base and dispenser) that allowsuser to “drag-and-drop” images of consumable units onto images of usersin account, where these images may be a default stock image or auser-uploaded image (2) Setting and viewing personal tasks (includingbut not limited to consumption goals and adherence goals), via means ofa modifiable virtual persona or assistant, that may be monitored bycloud analytics or healthcare professionals and systems (3) Viewing anddownloading analytics output, including but not limited to varioushealthiness metrics, personal goal progress and consumablerecommendations based on user data (4) Browsing for pertinent medicalinformation, including but not limited to drug facts, disease symptomsand treatments, physician locations and availabilities, healthcare newson medications and diseases, and site-specific content, in a mannertailored for user given user data (5) Receiving device-agnosticdeliveries of this pertinent medical information, triggered by newsevents (e.g. drug recall, manufacturer warning letters) or user-specificevents (e.g. user's family member commenced use of specific drugregimen), and tailored by user data (6) Viewing, downloading and sharingthe above pertinent medical information.

Dosing functions for the user dashboard may include the following: (1)Scheduling and viewing of necessary consumption schedule for one or moreusers on the account, through simple drag-and-drop calendar interface(see above), tailored by user data (2) As part of scheduling, setting upmanually or automatically (based on user data) a queue of doses ormedicine consumption, which may be selectively shared or hidden fromother users and 3rd parties (3) Sorting, filtering and viewing queues ofdoses by user according to consumable categorization (including but notlimited to consumable indication and length of consumable's medicaleffects) (4) Copying, via the simple drag-and-drop interface (seeabove), dose queues from one user to another.

E-commerce functions for the user dashboard may include the following:(1) Browsing SKUs available online, whose displaying may be streamlinedby user data (2) Placing orders for SKUs via any device, and settingautomatic SKU ordering based on several trigger events, including butnot limited to user inventory depletion and regular scheduled reordering(3) Receiving location-specific coupons to SKUs via user's mobile smartdevices (4) Receiving personalized SKU recommendations based on userdata (5) Scanning prescriptions and other paper-based medicaldocumentation (6) Automatic uploading and order processing as soon asprescriptions are issued or scanned into system (7) Grabbing profiles ofother users, in other words purchasing some or all of a specific user'shistorical purchase basket, if that user has shared their purchasehistory for grabbing purposes (8) Decision-tree based commerce.

Settings management functions for the user dashboard may include thefollowing: (1) Management of one or multiple bases, dispensers andclips, including but not limited to remote dispensing, remoteauthorization of dispensing, activation of sleep mode,multi-base/dispenser/clip/cartridge management and dispensing (2)Drag-and-drop interface (see above) to copy or move settings and regimesfrom one base, dispenser, clip, or cartridge to another (3) Accountsettings management, including account setup and individual user setup(4) Disabling or enabling cloud features, to enable offline vs. cloudtracking and processing options.

Administrators may include caretakers, site administrators, sitedevelopers and customer service agents. The administrator dashboard maybe an interface that encompass the above user dashboard functions upondirect authorization by the user, and may additionally include thefollowing functions: (1) Remote base/dispenser/clip access for customerservice and maintenance, upon user authorization (2) Underlying systemaccess to implement new features (3) User data and device data access,for customer service and troubleshooting, upon user authorization. Somepotential features of the administrator dashboard are documented in FIG.34.

Healthcare professionals may include caretakers, physicians, healthcaretechnicians, nutritionists and other qualified healthcare employees. Thehealthcare professional dashboard may be an interface that encompassesthe following functions: (1) Editing a user's EMR or any otherhealthcare data structure, including but not limited to modifying andadding data in existing fields, and adding additional data fields (2)Inserting doses into user's dose queue or dose queues, without beingable to see other doses in the dose queues, unless user providesauthorization (3) Remote base/dispenser/clip access for dispensing andconsumption monitoring (4) Remote authorization of pill production inbase (by regulators and regulatory officials). Some potential featuresof the healthcare professional dashboard are documented in FIG. 35.

The cloud may perform or support two way communications with user'sbases, dispensers, clips and cartridges. Further, cloud may perform twoway communications with any other smart devices that a user may have(e.g. smartphone, iPad), through which the user may access the cloudinterfaces. Even further, cloud may perform two way communication withmedical professionals and systems (e.g. EMR systems, disease managementsystems, genomic/genetic platforms physicians/healthcare professionals,patient vitals tracking devices/systems and quantified-selfdevices/systems). Communicated data may include but is not limited topatient consumable consumption data, consumption scheduling (input byprofessionals or by users), medical diagnoses, directions/guidelines andprescriptions (thus user may not be required to physically visit medicalauthority/professional.

The cloud may download data to bases, dispensers, clips and cartridgesat regular intervals or upon receiving the SKU number from thosedevices, e.g. SKU-specific data, firmware updates, general drug/healthinformation and user data. The cloud may use prioritized buffering andtransmission to make sure key non-redundant data is transmitted firstduring any communication, to ensure reliability when user devices havelimited Internet access.

The cloud may deliver alert communications upon triggers including butnot limited to scheduled dosing (including any dosing requirements, suchas need to take drug with food), misuse (e.g. missed medication,overdose) and unsafe drug interactions (e.g. Drug A and Drug B causestomach bleeding if consumed within 24 hrs of each other), where alertsmay be in any form (e.g. emails, text messages, notifications onabase/dispenser/clip) and may travel to any device, including locallynetworked devices or devices within a firewall.

A particular user may have a notification state in the cloud which mayescalate based on trigger events (e.g. mis-dosing); the followingembodiments of notification states may exist: (Level 1:) Normal state,user may receive notifications through system devices and appnotifications (Level 2:) Upon missing a dose, user may receive textmessages, emails, etc. (Level 3:) Emergency state, for example uponoverdosing or repeated missing of scheduled doses, user may receivephone call from human customer service agent and emergency contacts maybe alerted.

All communications may be fully compliant with US and internationalrequirements, including but not limited to HIPAA, and may be encryptedwith industry standard or industry leading cryptographic technologies,such as 256-bit Rijndael encryption. All communications may pass throughcloud's system servers to ensure complete reliability and security.

The cloud may connect to social media portals (e.g. Facebook) tosupplement user data with additional fields, e.g. favorite foods. Systemmay communicate with GPS towers, cells towers, Wi-Fi nodes and otherwireless access points to determine or triangulate a user's location.

The cloud may connect with healthcare professionals, prescriptionvendors and insurers automatically upon prescription issuance or entry,potentially for order processing, drug shipment and regulatory datafiling, among other functions.

The cloud may pull from multiple online databases and news sources tofind and push SKU-specific up-to-date news and alerts, including but notlimited to drug recalls, updated drug interactions, updated drugwarnings, and manufacturer warning letters.

The cloud may require authorization from users to unlock access to cloudfeatures as well as identify users. Methods for authorization mayinclude but are not limited to the following: type, touch, speech,facial/visual recognition, fingerprint recognition, or combinations ofthese. Users may authorize certain human or automated agents to view allor a specified part of their user data. Agents may include but are notlimited to doctors, hospital systems. Users may authorize agents on anindividual basis or by certain agent characteristics, including but notlimited to doctor specialty, doctor experience with consumableindication, and hospital group. Users may authorize site administratorsand customer service representatives to access their accounts fortroubleshooting and development purposes. Users that are account ownersmay authorize other users (whether part of their account or not) toconsume certain SKUs or use certain bases, dispensers and clips.

Security of EMRs and other healthcare data structures may be enabled viadata licensing and incremental digital signatures.

The cloud may provide consumable usage trend identification via ananalytics engine, for (1) input to medical professionals and systems (2)warnings/recommendations based on recognized patterns and medical input(3) on demand data/visuals for users (4) modification of pricing andsupply chain (e.g. contract and internal manufacturing) of consumableproducts.

E-commerce backend may exist for auto-replenishing of cartridges viaautomatically triggered orders (when Dispenser/Cases/base detectcartridges are near empty), order queuing, dose queuing and replacementof prescription filling process by connecting user with healthcareprofessional with prescription vendor.

The cloud may provide storage, in a distributed database, of a user'suser data, base/dispenser/clip data, medical professional/system datalisted above, and other data as appropriate, as well as hosting foradditional content (including but not limited to blogs, user forums,site-specific media and content). User data in cloud layer may beredundant with user data on bases, dispensers and clips, and cloudperforms conflict resolution as necessary. Cloud may cache frequentlyaccessed user data for quick transmission to users and bases, dispensersand clips.

Cloud access may be provided to 3rd parties via documented API. API mayallow access to evolving subset of full cloud functionality. Similarly,3rd party APIs may be used by the system to bring 3rd party devices,networks, and ecosystems into the connected network and functionality ofthe dispensables system.

Customers may purchase a preset (for example “Family with children”preset) cartridge, clip, base or dispenser. For preset products, thecloud may automatically configure the vanilla product to a particularpreset based on the unique product ID and the associated productpurchase information from the user.

Still more generally, a variety of fixed and distributed infrastructuresmay be usefully employed with bases and other system components toprovide value added services and augment operation of the system for anindividual user. Thus portions of the systems and methods describedabove may be implemented in the cloud, while other portions use localprocessing resources for a base, such as a computer, printer, camera,and the like coupled to a local area network shared with the base orwith one of the cartridges. In another aspect, other network resourcesmay be usefully combined with cloud-based services and local processingresources to provide various layers of functionality, knowledge sharing,redundancy, and speed. For example, while a cloud-based or otherremote-hosted system may manage personal inventory by automaticallyordering replacement cartridges at appropriate times, this may also beperformed with a suitably programmed local computer that can readcompliance data, cartridge status, and scheduling information from alocal base and determine when replacement cartridges might be needed. Alocal reminder may then be presented to the user of the base, or thecomputer may autonomously connect to the network and authorize or makecorresponding purchases. Still more generally, a single user may wish toautonomously manage all dispensing activity, and the system may beconfigured as a closed system with no external network connectivity, orwith limited network activity, e.g., to issue e-mail or text messagealerts from the local computer. At the same time, each functiondescribed above may occur at any number of locations. For example,monitoring consumable units may be performed by a cartridge, by a clip,by a base, by a local computing device, by a dedicated remote server, orby a general purpose, cloud-based management system. Similarly variousnotification systems, monitoring functions, data storage functions,management and administration functions and the like may be distributedor centralized in various manners across available resources accordingto user preferences, security requirements, oversight required by healthcare professionals, data integrity requirements and so forth. All suchvariations are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure, andnot particular function, service, system component, sub-component, orcommunications interface or endpoint should be presumed to reside withany specific system element unless explicitly stated to the contrary orotherwise clear from the context.

FIG. 36 illustrates a system for managing consumables for a user. Ingeneral, the system 3600 may include one or more cartridges 3602 eachcontaining a plurality of consumable units; and a base 3604 including aprocessor 3603 and one or more slots 3606 to removably and replaceablyreceive each of the one or more cartridges, wherein the base 3604 isconfigured to operate each of the one or more cartridges 3602 todispense one or more consumable units from the one or more cartridges3602 to a user. While various components in the following descriptionmay be illustrated in specific locations, it will be understood thatsuch components may be physically integrated into the base or one of thecartridges 3602, or externally provided as an accessory or remoteresource for the foregoing, unless a different meaning is explicitlyprovided or otherwise clear from the context. Additionally, anycomponents shown generally as located in the same or similar locationmay be located in different locations in an implementation.

Similarly, the base 3604 may be an integrated device with one or morecontainers for dispensables in bulk form, along with a mechanism (suchas any of the mechanisms described above) to dispense individual dosesof consumable units from the container(s). Where a cartridge 3602 isused that is removable from and replaceable to a base 3604, a user inputsuch as a button or any of the other mechanisms described above, may beprovided to manually activate the dispensing mechanism, and a machineinput separate from the user input that is actuatable by a machine maybe provided for, e.g., the base 3604 to activate the dispensingmechanism.

The base 3604 may be further configured with hardware and/or software toperform a variety of functions. For example, the base may be configuredto dispense consumable units from the one or more cartridges accordingto a predetermined schedule stored, e.g., in a memory in the baseassociated with the processor.

A cartridge 3602 may contain and dispense bulk items in consumable unitsas described herein.

In one aspect, the base may include a compounding device 3608 to createcustom dispensable from consumable units in the one or more cartridges.For example, the base 3604 may include a compounding device 3608 tocreate single dose of medication from the one or more consumable units.As noted above, the consumable units in each cartridge may include unitform consumables such as pills or capsules or continuous form consumableunits amenable to bulk packaging such as liquids, powders, and so forth.The compounding device 3608 may include any number of active compoundsto prepare dispensable from the consumable units such as a heater, amixer, a pill press or other pill maker, an encapsulator, a spraycoater, a dipping bath, and so forth. So configured, the base 3604permits custom, on demand dispensables that meter and mix compositionsfrom a range of different consumable units available in the one or morecartridges. In another aspect, the compounding device may be in a singlecartridge 3602 that includes multiple independent dispensing reservoirscommonly controlled by the base 3604 to provide a mixed consumable inresponse to a single dispense instruction from the base 3604. In thisaspect, the cartridge 3602 may include a mixing system to combine thetwo types of consumable units into a single composite consumable unit.Thus, the compounding device 3608 is broadly applicable to any of thedispensers in the system (e.g., cartridge or base).

A packaging mechanism may be incorporated into the compounding device3608, or provided instead of or in addition to the compounding device3608, to wrap one or more dispensed consumables in a disposablepackaging such as a paper wrap, blister pack, or the like. In thismanner, consumables can be dispensed in packaging for convenienttransportation.

The base may include a printer 3610 such as a thermal printer, laserprinter, inkjet printer, contact printer, or the like for labeling andother functions. In one aspect, the processor of the base may beconfigured to print dosing instructions for consumable units in one ofthe cartridges with the printer. The printer may print dosinginstructions on an adhesive strip shaped and sized to attach to one ofthe cartridges so that a cartridge can be removed from the base andcarried with readily available dosing instructions similar to aconventional pill bottle or the like. In another aspect, the processormay be configured to dispense a plurality of consumable units for apredetermined time interval according to a predetermined schedule, andwherein the processor is further configured to print dosing instructionsfor the plurality of consumable units within the predetermined timeinterval. In this manner, a user may print a time-specific itinerary ordosing schedule and dispense corresponding consumable units so that, forexample, consumable units and corresponding dosing information can becarried by a user without any need to rely on the base or cartridges forthe predetermined time interval (e.g., several days for travel, or thelike). The packaging system may be concurrently used to providetemporary, disposable packaging for the consumable units in thistemporary, portable schedule. In another aspect, the consumable unitsmay include one or more pills and one or more sachets in bulk form, andthe base may be configured to package one of the one or more pills inone of the one or more sachets, thereby providing a packaged item, andto dispense the packaged item from the base. In this context, theprinter may be configured to print individual dosing instructions thepackaged item before it is dispensed by the base. The predeterminedschedule may be a prescription schedule administered by a health careprofessional.

In general, the consumable units may include but are not limited tomedications. For non-prescription medications or the like, thepredetermined schedule may be a user-created dosing schedule or regimen.The plurality of consumable units may also or instead include anutritional supplement. The plurality of consumable units may also orinstead include one or more of an over-the-counter medication, a vitaminsupplement, a mineral supplement, a prescription medication, aveterinary medication, and a veterinary nutritional supplement.

The system may include a social networking platform 3612 which mayinteract with the base and/or a user in a variety of ways. The platformmay be configured to share the user-created dosing schedule with one ormore other users. The platform may be configured to facilitate amodification to another dosing schedule for another user, including butnot limited to consumers, administrators, caretakers, and healthcareprofessionals. The platform may be configured to forward arecommendation for a dosing schedule to another user. The platform maybe configured to receive a second dosing schedule from another user. Theplatform may be configured to facilitate a modification to the dosingschedule according to a second dosing schedule of another user. Theplatform may be configured to receive a recommendation for amodification to the dosing schedule from another user.

The predetermined schedule or regimen may serve a variety of functionsand take a variety of forms generally related to timing of delivery ofconsumable items in the one or more cartridges. This may generallyinclude personally configured schedules, professionally configuredschedules, or combinations of these. For example, the predeterminedschedule includes a first schedule provided by a health careprofessional for one or more medications and a second schedule providedby the user for one or more nutritional supplements. The predeterminedschedule may include two or more schedules from two or more entities.The predetermined schedule may include dosing of the consumable unitsfrom two or more of the cartridges substantially concurrently. Thepredetermined schedule may include specific times for the user to takethe consumable units. The base may store dosing information with thepredetermined schedule, such as information about a medium to becombined with one of the consumable units prior to consumption (e.g.,mix with one cup of water) or a medium to be ingested with one of theconsumable units (e.g., take two with each meal). The predeterminedschedule may include relative times for the user to take the consumableunits. The relative times may include a time relative to one or more ofa sleep event, a wake up event, an activity, a travel event, anindication-specific event, and a meal event. Thus for example, theschedule may indicate a dose-related event (e.g., take before physicalactivity) without requiring a dose at any predetermined time. This maybe coupled with an input device for the base with which a user canindicate an occurrence or imminent occurrence of the dose-related eventin order to receive corresponding, scheduled consumable units. Thus, thebase may include an input device 3614 to receive a user indication thatan event associated with the relative time has occurred (or for anyother user input). The input device may include a button, a touchscreen, or any other suitable input device. The predetermined scheduledmay include dosing for two or more users. The base may be configured tomanually dispense one of the consumable units from one of the cartridgesin response to a user input, and to update the predetermined scheduleaccording to a corresponding dosage.

One of the cartridges may include a clip 3616 that is separable from thecartridge. The clip may be shaped and sized to hold the cartridge and tofit in to one of the slots of the base. Thus it will be understood thatthe “cartridge” as contemplated herein may in certain circumstancesinclude the clip, such as where the clip is required to fit thecartridge into one of the slots, or the cartridge may be a separatedevice from the clip, such as where describing various allocations offunctionality and features between the clip and the cartridge, manycombinations of which are possible. It will be thus understood that theclip is not necessarily separate from or included in the cartridge, andthe appropriate meaning will in general be expressly stated or clearfrom the context. In one aspect, the clip may electrically couple thebase to the one of the cartridges in a communicating relationship. Inanother aspect, the clip may mechanically couple the base to the one ofthe cartridges in order to mechanically, electrically, or otherwisedispense one of the consumable units from the one of the cartridges. Theclip may include a processor configured to control operation of thecartridge. The system may also include a plurality of clips and aplurality of cartridges, each one of the plurality of clips removablyand replaceably attachable to each one of the plurality of cartridges.

The base may include a user interface device 3618 or system for avariety of functions related to user interactions. For example, the basemay include a keypad configured for passcode authentication of the user.The base may include a voice recognition user interface for userinteraction with the base. The base may include a gesture recognitionsystem for user interaction with the base. The base may include a voicerecognition system for authenticating the user. The base may also orinstead include voice recognition or speech recognition to support aninteractive voice response interface for spoken interactions with auser. The base may include a facial recognition system forauthenticating the user. The base may include a biometric system forauthenticating the user. The biometric system may include a fingerprintidentification system or any other biometrically based identificationsystem using, e.g., eye recognition or any other suitable recognitiontechnique. The base may be configured to authenticate the user beforedispensing the one or more consumable units.

The base may include one or more chutes 3620 positioned to receive theconsumable units from one or more cartridges and guide the consumableunits to a user-accessible location. The user-accessible location mayinclude a sensor to detect when the one or more consumable units havebeen removed by the user. In one embodiment, multiple bases couldfunction as modules and attach to each other, in a manner that, forexample, connects their chutes 3620 together into one or more integratedchutes.

The system may include an output device 3622 to transmit notificationsfrom the base, or to transmit notifications about a predeterminedschedule from some other location such as a management server, localcomputer, or the like. In this manner, the base may be configured tonotify the user with the output device when one or more consumable unitshave been dispensed. The output device may include one or more of abuzzer, a speaker, a display, and a light-emitting diode. The outputdevice may include a network communications device configured totransmit at least one of a text message, an electronic mail, and atelephone message. The output device may notify a health care systemwhen the one or more consumable units are dispensed, such as forcompliance monitoring or the like. The output device may transmit auser-configured notification to a user-selected entity when the one ormore consumable units are dispensed. The output device may include apush notification system for pushing notifications to one or more of amobile device and a remote application.

More generally, the system may include a notification system 3624, whichmay be present on the base station, a remote server, a local computer, aportable computing device of the user, or any other location orcombination of locations, to alert the user of a dosage in thepredetermined schedule, or to more generally provide notifications tothe user or third parties upon any predetermined conditions. Thenotification system transmit may be configured to provide a series ofescalating alerts for increasingly urgent reminders about doses in thepredetermined schedule. For example, a first alert may be transmitted tothe user when the dosage is due. The notification system mayconditionally transmit a second alert to the user when the dosage is bemissed by the user. The notification system may conditionally transmit athird alert to the user when the user does not respond to the secondalert for a predetermined time, wherein the third alert may include anotification to a call center to contact the user. The third alert maybe transmitted to one or more health care professionals. More generally,the notification system may be a user-configurable notification system.The notification system may be configurable to provide a sequence ofescalating notifications using a number of communication mediumsaccording to deviations from the predetermined schedule. Thenotification system may be configurable by a third party to provide oneor more notifications according to deviations from the predeterminedschedule. Thus for example, a health care professional, concernedrelative, or other authorized user may remotely manage medication or thelike administered by the base through automated notifications generatedby the notification system. The third alert may be transmitted to one ormore predetermined contacts for the user.

One or more of the cartridges may include a communications interface3626 to the base station and circuitry configured to communicate anumeric count of the plurality of consumable units in the cartridge tothe base station through the communications interface. Thecommunications interface may include a wireless interface. The wirelessinterface may include a radio-frequency identifier (RFID) tag interface.The wireless interface may include a near field communicationsinterface. The wireless interface may include one or more of a Bluetoothinterface, a Wi-Fi interface, a ZigBee interface, a Z-Wave interface, anInsteon interface, an EnOcean interface, a DECT interface, and aninfrared interface. This interface may allow connection to or formationof a network, including but not limited to a local area network, anad-hoc network, an open mesh, and a peer-to-peer network.

One of the cartridges may include a memory configured to store thenumeric count of the number of consumable units in the cartridge. Thecartridge may include circuitry configured to detect the numeric countof the number of consumable units. The system may include an orderfulfillment system 3628. The base may be configured to dispenseconsumable units from the one or more cartridges according to apredetermined schedule, and the order fulfillment system may compare thenumeric count of the plurality of consumable units to the predeterminedschedule to determine when a replacement cartridge should be ordered forthe user. The order fulfillment system may include computer codeexecuting on the processor of the base. The order fulfillment system mayalso or instead include computer code executing on a remote servercoupled in a communicating relationship through a data network to thebase. The order fulfillment system may be configured to order thereplacement cartridge. The order fulfillment system may be configured tonotify the user to order the replacement cartridge.

The system may include a management interface 3630 to provide a varietyof management functions associated with dispensing consumable units fromthe base and related user health and wellness issues. The managementinterface may include a graphical user interface for managing thepredetermined schedule. The management interface may be hosted on aremote server coupled in a communicating relationship with the base. Themanagement interface may include a web interface configured for remoteaccess. The management interface may be hosted on the base. Themanagement interface may include a web interface configured for remoteaccess. The management interface may be provided by an applicationexecuting on a computing device such as a laptop, desktop, tablet,smartphone or other device. In general, the computing device may bewirelessly coupled to the base through a local area network. Thecomputing device may be coupled to the base through a wired connection.The wired connection may include one or more of a wired Ethernetconnection, a USB connection, a FireWire connection, a Lightning port, aThunderbolt interface, an eSATA interface, an HDMI interface, a CAN businterface, an ExpressCard interface, a Fieldbus interface, a Futurebusinterface, a DisplayPort interface, a UPB interface, an X10 interface,and a PCI Express interface.

The management interface may be configured for the user to modify thepredetermined schedule. The management interface may be configured tolimit modifications to the predetermined schedule to one or moreauthenticated individuals. The management interface may be configured tolimit modifications to the predetermined schedule to one or morequalified health care professionals. The management interface may beconfigured to display compliance information. The management interfaceprovides a drag-and-drop interface to transfer the predeterminedschedule from one base to another base. The management interface mayprovide a drag-and-drop interface to transfer the predetermined schedulefor a particular type of consumable unit from one cartridge to anothercartridge. The management interface may provide a drag-and-dropinterface for removing an association of one of one or more cartridgeswith the base. The management interface may provide a drag-and-dropinterface to allocate a consumption of the consumable units in one ofthe cartridges to the user. The management interface may provide adrag-and-drop interface to allocate a type of consumable unit to theuser.

In another aspect, the system may include a remote management system3632 coupled in a communicating relationship with the base. The remotemanagement system may identify a low level in one of the one or morecartridges. The remote management system may determine whether aprescription for the user may include additional dosages for a type ofmedication in the one of the one or more cartridges, thereby providing aprescription verification. The remote management system may initiate amanaged care billing request for a replacement cartridge based upon theprescription verification. The remote management system may initiate apayment from the user based upon the prescription verification. Theremote management system may initiate an order for the replacementcartridge with a vendor. The remote management system may provide anauction platform configured to receive a pre-authorization from the userto purchase a replacement cartridge for the one of the one or morecartridges, and to process bids from one or more vendors to fulfill anorder for the one of the one or more cartridges. The remote managementsystem may provide a reseller market for sale of used cartridges. Theremote management system may provide a virtual market for one or more ofthe one or more cartridges. The remote management system may determine apurchasing history for the user and initiates a purchase of one or morereplacement cartridges for the user based upon the purchasing history.The remote management system may monitor compliance for the useraccording to one or more prescriptions from one or more health careproviders. The remote management system may provide a compliance reportto one or more third parties. The one or more third parties may includeat least one health care provider. The remote management system maycompare one or more prescriptions from one or more health care providersto ensure compatibility of the one or more prescriptions.

Where the base is configured to dispense consumable units from the oneor more cartridges according to a predetermined schedule, the remotemanagement system may compare one or more consumable units in thepredetermined schedule for drug interactions based on data from one ormore of warning databases, government sources, drug label information,pharmaceutical companies, healthcare groups, health care providers, andpatient groups. The remote management system may monitor consumableunits dispensed from all of the cartridges registered with the base tothe user to determine an actual medication regime for the user, and theremote management system may check for counter-indications within theactual medication regime. The remote management system may be furtherconfigured to generate an alert to one or more health care providers fora counter-indication identified within the actual medication regime. Theremote management system may be further configured to generate an alertto one or more predetermined contacts for a counter-indicationidentified within the actual medication regime. The base may beconfigured to dispense consumable units from the one or more cartridgesaccording to a predetermined schedule, and the remote management systemmay detect one or more consumable units manually dispensed from the baseand update the predetermined schedule on the base.

The system may include a financial processing system 3634 for processingvarious financial transactions associated with use of the base and/orcartridges. The financial processing system may be coupled in acommunicating relationship with the base through a data network such asthe Internet. The financial processing system may be configured toinitiate a payment authorization from the user for a replacementcartridge. The replacement cartridge may be identified from a recurringschedule of replacements. The financial processing system may beconfigured to initiate a payment authorization from a health insuranceprovider for the replacement cartridge. The financial processing systemmay be configured to initiate a payment authorization from a third partypayor for the replacement cartridge. The financial processing system maybe configured to initiate a payment authorization from a healthinsurance provider for a recurring charge to use the base. The financialprocessing system may be configured to initiate a payment to a providerof a replacement cartridge.

The base may include other hardware 3636 such as a variety of inputdevices, output devices, sensors, communications devices, and so forth.For example, the base may include a radio-frequency identification tagreader configured to retrieve data from one of the one or morecartridges. The base may include a local area network interface. Thelocal area network interface may be a short range wireless interfaceconfigured to couple the base station in a communicating relationshipwith a computing device of the user. The short range wireless interfacemay include a Wi-Fi network interface. The base may include a networkinterface to couple the base in a communicating relationship with aremote resource using a data network such as the Internet. The base maybe configured to communicate through the network interface with one ormore of the remote management system, the financial processing system,and the order fulfillment system described above. The base may beconfigured to communicate through the network interface with one or moreof a health care provider system, a health insurance provider system, aretailer, and a pharmacy. The base may include a cellular networkinterface. The base may be configured to couple in a communicatingrelationship with a remote resource through the cellular networkinterface. The cellular network interface may include one or more of a3G interface, a 4G interface, and an LTE interface.

The system may include an interface 3638, such as any of a number ofmechanical, electrical, and/or electromechanical interfaces between thebase and one of the cartridges. For example, each of the one or moreslots may include a locking mechanism to mechanically secure one of thecartridges in the one of the slots. The locking mechanism for one of theslots may be configured to automatically lock upon insertion of one ofthe cartridges into the one of the slots. The base may include auser-activated release to unlock one of the locking mechanisms forremoval of a corresponding one of the cartridges. The user-activatedrelease may be a mechanical release. The user-activated release may bean electro-mechanical release. Each of the one or more slots may includeone or more mechanical registration features to receive one of thecartridges in a predetermined orientation. Each of the one or more slotsmay include an electronic interface to electrically couple the base toone of the cartridges. The electronic interface may include a powercoupling, the base further configured to provide power to the one of thecartridges through the power coupling. The electronic interface mayinclude a data interface, the base further configured to exchange datawith the one of the cartridges through the data interface. The base mayinclude a wireless power delivery system configured to wirelesslyprovide power to at least one of the cartridges. The system may includea childproofing mechanism on at least one of the one or more cartridgessuch as a key code for authorized access or a mechanical lever, button,or the like that increases the difficulty for a child to access theconsumable units in the cartridge. The system may include a bypassmechanism on the base to bypass the childproofing mechanism. The bypassmechanism may include a user authentication system in the base. The clipmay include a bypass mechanism to bypass the childproofing mechanism.

Each of the one or more cartridges may include a unique identifier 3640.The unique identifier may be optically encoded on each of the one ormore cartridges. The base may include an optical scanner for reading theunique identifier. The base may include one optical scanner 3642 foreach one of the slots, wherein the unique identifier may be positionedin a predetermined location on each one of the one or more cartridgesand wherein each optical scanner may be positioned to capture an imageof one of the unique identifiers when one of the cartridges may beplaced in a corresponding one of the slots.

The system may include a weight sensor 3644 configured to detect aweight of contents of one of the one or more cartridges. The system mayinclude processing circuitry configured to calculate a consumable unitcount for the one of the one or more cartridges based upon the weight.The system may include calibration circuitry configured to adjust theconsumable units count according to one or more of temperature,humidity, time and desiccant activity. The weight sensor may be in thebase, or the weight sensor may be in one of the cartridges, or theweight sensor may be distributed between these components.

The system may include a central repository 3646 such as a data store,remotely accessible database, or the like accessible through the datanetwork for checking one of the cartridges against external data sourcesincluding one or more of user data, healthcare databases, official newssources, unofficial news sources, government news sources, and alertservices. In this manner, the contents of a cartridge may be checked ata SKU level for recalls, warnings, counter-indications, and so forthbased on the specific contents of the cartridge and the most recentinformation available. The central repository may provide data forchecking the plurality of consumable units in the one of the cartridgesagainst external data sources.

The system may include a goal setting platform 3648 to assist a user inachieving a goal in cooperation with contents of the cartridges and aschedule for consumable units. The goal setting platform may beconfigured to receive a goal of a user and provide reminders to the userrelated to the plurality of consumable units in the one or morecartridges. The goal setting platform may also or instead be configuredto provide reminders related to the goal and unrelated to the pluralityof consumables.

The system may include cartridge data for one of the cartridges storedin a cartridge memory, along with a remote data store that redundantlystores the cartridge data. The cartridge memory may reside in the base,or in one of the cartridges. A reconciliation service may be provided toreconcile data between the remote data store and the cartridge memory.

The system may include a network interface for coupling one of thecartridges to the data network, with the network interface configured totransmit data between the cartridge and a remote resource according to apriority. In this manner, data may be prioritized, such as in limitedconnectivity contexts, to ensure that the most important or highestpriority data is exchanged first. The priority may be based on a degreeof redundancy so the least redundant data is exchanged first. Theprioritization may occur at any point in the corresponding dataconnection, and may for example be implemented in one or more of thecartridge, the base, and the remote resource. In one aspect, the networkinterface may include a wireless communication interface in the one ofthe cartridges, which may couple in a communicating relationship to,e.g., the base station with a short range wireless protocol or a widearea data network using a cellular or other wireless data networkinfrastructure.

One of the cartridges may include two types of consumable units in twoindependently dispensing reservoirs. More generally, one of thecartridges or any number of the cartridges may include three or moretypes of consumable in three or more independently dispensingreservoirs. The independently dispensing reservoirs may be independentlycontrollable by the base in order to permit customized consumable unitsbased on mixtures of the two or more types of consumables. The twoindependently dispensing reservoirs may also or instead be commonlycontrolled by the base to provide a mixed consumable having apredetermined composition in response to a single dispense instructionfrom the base. The cartridge may also include a mixing system such as astirring system, blending system, agitation system, pill press, and thelike to combine the two types of consumable units into a single,composite consumable unit, which may be a pill, a capsule, a suspension,and a solution. In this manner, a cartridge may serve as a personalcompounding system for home-made medications, supplements, and so forth.

FIG. 37 illustrates different views, a rear perspective view and a frontperspective view, of a cartridge and clip. In one aspect there isdisclosed herein a device 3700 (optionally with or without the clip)that includes a container 3702 configured to hold a plurality ofconsumable units; a mechanism 3704 to dispense individual doses of theplurality of consumable units from the container; a user input 3706 tomanually activate the mechanism and dispense one of the plurality ofconsumable units; a machine input 3708 to activate the mechanism anddispense one of the plurality of consumable units, e.g., in response toa signal from a base (when the device 3700 is coupled to a base); and amechanical interface 3710 including one or more mechanical registrationfeatures to removably and replaceably insert the device into a base. Ingeneral, the one or more registration features align the device to thebase in a predetermined alignment.

The device may include a locking mechanism 3712 to securely retain thedevice in the predetermined alignment in the base, which may be disposedon the device, on the base, or between the two. The device may include abattery 3714 or other power source to provide power to the device forelectronic operation. The device may include a processor 3716. Thedevice may include a memory 3718 configured to store a predeterminedschedule for delivery of the plurality of consumable units to a user.The device may include an output device 3720 to notify the user of atime to take one of the plurality of consumable units according to thepredetermined schedule.

The device may include an electronic interface 3722 adapted toelectrically couple the device to the base when the device may be in thepredetermined alignment. The electronic interface may be a powerinterface. The electronic interface may be a data interface.

The device may include a radio-frequency identification tag 3726.

The device may include communications circuitry 3728 for one of more ofnear field communications, Bluetooth communications, ZigBeecommunications, Z-Wave communications, Insteon communications, EnOceancommunications, and DECT communications. The device may includecommunications circuitry for one or more of CDMA communications, 3 Gcommunications, 4 G communications, LTE communications, and WiMAXcommunications. The communications circuitry 3728 may also or insteadinclude a network communications device (such as a wired or wirelessEthernet or other 802.xx device) configured to notify a user to take oneof the consumables in the container 3702 according to the schedule. Thecommunications device may transmit a notification using at least one ofa text message, and electronic mail, a VoIP message, a push notificationto a mobile device application, a telephone message, and the like,and/or a signal to a remote notification platform to similarly transmita notification using any of the foregoing.

The user input may manually activate the machine input. The memory maybe configured to store a numeric amount of the plurality of consumableunits in the container. The device may include one or more sensors 3730to detect the numeric amount. The device may include processingcircuitry to update the numeric amount when one of the plurality ofconsumable units may be dispensed from the container. The device mayinclude a mechanical counter 3732 to indicate a numeric amount of theplurality of consumable units in the container.

The mechanism may include an agitator and a chute, the agitatorresponsive to the user input or the machine input to agitate the numberof consumable units in the container, thereby dispensing one of theplurality of consumable units through the chute. The chute may be anasymmetrical chute. The agitator may be an asymmetrical verticalagitator or asymmetrical horizontal agitator.

The device may include a machine-readable identifier 3734. Themachine-readable identifier may uniquely identify the device. Themachine-readable identifier may encode information about the device. Themachine-readable identifier may encode information about contents of thecontainer of the device. The machine-readable identifier may encode anexpiration date for a consumable unit associated with the contents ofthe container. The machine-readable identifier may encode aStock-Keeping Unit (SKU) for the contents of the container. Themachine-readable identifier may encode one or more of a name for theSKU, a milligrams-per-dose of SKU consumables, a weight of emptycartridge for the SKU, a weight of a single unit of SKU consumables, awarning for the SKU, and directions and guidance for the SKU. Themachine-readable identifier may include a radio-frequency identificationtag. The machine-readable identifier may include a Quick Response code.The machine-readable identifier may include a bar code.

The device may include a clip 3736, which may be removably andreplaceably coupled to the device. The clip may provide the mechanicalinterface for coupling to the base. The clip may connect to themechanical interface of the device. The clip may include a user-operablebutton 3738 configured to activate the machine interface of the device.Thus in one aspect, the clip 3736 may include a first mechanicalinterface 3760 configured to removably and replaceably couple to acontainer 3702, which as shown may be housed in a cartridge 3770providing various other components for various features and functions.The clip 3736 may also include a second mechanical interface 3780configured to removably and replaceably couple to a base such as any ofthe bases described herein. In general, this clip 3736 may serve as anintermediate component supporting communication interfaces between thecartridge 3770 and the base (not shown) and permitting an exchange ofinformation therebetween. The clip 3736 may also store information suchas a schedule (from the base) and a quantity of consumables (from thecartridge 3770) to facilitate removal of the clip/cartridge combinationfrom the base for temporary independent use.

The clip may include a memory 3740 storing a numeric amount of theplurality of consumable units in the container. The clip may beconfigured to obtain the numeric amount from the device. The clip may beconfigured to obtain the numeric amount from the base. The clip mayupdate the numeric amount when one of the consumable units is dispensedfrom the device. The memory may also or instead store a predeterminedschedule for delivery of the plurality of consumable units to a user.The clip may include an output device 3744 to notify the user of a timeto take one of the plurality of consumable units according to thepredetermined schedule.

The clip may include a power source 3742. The power source may beconfigured to provide power from the power source to the device. Theclip may be configured to communicate data between the device and thebase. The clip may include a display 3744 to display a numeric amount ofthe plurality of consumable units in the container of the device.

The clip may be configured to hold a plurality of devices. The clip maybe configured independently control each one of the plurality ofdevices.

In one aspect, the device may include a memory configured to store apredetermined schedule for delivery of the plurality of consumable unitsto a user and a processor 3745 may be configured to couple the device ina communicating relationship with the base when the device may beinserted into the base. The processor may be configured to retrieve anupdate to the predetermined schedule from the base and/or the processormay be configured to transmit consumable unit delivery data for thecontainer to the base.

As noted above, the device may include a clip coupled to the device thatprovides the mechanical interface for insertion into the base, the clipmay include a processor, a first communication interface to communicatewith the base, and a second communication interface to communicate withthe device. In this configuration, the processor may be configured tocouple the device in a communicating relationship with the base. Theclip may be configured to provide an updated predetermined schedule fromthe base to the device when the clip and the device are inserted intothe base in the predetermined alignment. The clip may be configured toprovide consumable unit delivery data for the container to the base whenthe clip and the device are inserted into the base in the predeterminedalignment.

FIG. 38 shows a system for managing consumables. In general, the system3800 may include one or more containers 3802, a base 3804, and a networkinterface 3806 to couple the base 3804 in a communicating relationshipwith a remote resource 3808 through a data network 3810. The base 3804may include a processor 3812 and one or more slots 3814 to removably andreplaceably receive the containers 3802.

Each of the containers 3802 may contain a plurality of consumable unitsas generally contemplated herein. While the following descriptionfocuses on consumable units, it will be understood that the containers3802 may contain any of the dispensables described herein. It shouldalso be understood that, without loss of generality, the systemsdescribed herein may also be implemented with “containers” that areformed by bins or the like integrated directly into the base 3804, sothat removable and replaceable containers are not required andconsumables are provided by a user directly to the bins in bulk form.

In one aspect, one of the containers 3802 may include a communicationsinterface to communicate with the base and circuitry configured tocommunicate a numeric count of consumable units in the container 3802through the communications interface. The container 3802 may also orinstead communicate any useful property of the consumable units in thecontainer such as weight, expiration date, and so forth.

The base 3804 may include a processor 3812 configured to operate each ofthe containers 3802 (when positioned in the slots 3814) to dispenseconsumable units. As described above, this may include operating eachcontainer 3802 to individually dispense consumable units, such as into acommon chute provided by the base 3804 or from a chute specific to thecorresponding container 3802, or this may include operating the base3804 to retrieve consumable units from each container 3802, or somecombination of these. The base 3804 may include a memory 3816 storing aschedule 3818, which may be any of the schedules described herein. Thememory 3816 storing the schedule 3818 may also or instead be in one ormore containers 3802, or in the remote resource 3806, or distributedamong these components. In general, the processor 3812 may be configuredto receive changes to the schedule from a first remote device 3820through the data network 3810, and to transmit information about thecontainers 3822 to a second remote device 3822, which may be the samedevice as the first remote device 3820 or a different device.

In one aspect, the base 3804 (e.g., with the processor 3812) may beconfigured to provide a notification to a user of an item on theschedule 3818. The base 3804 may also automatically dispense acorresponding consumable (which may occur with or without notificationto the user), or receive a manual input from the user to dispense theappropriate consumable. The base 3804 may also include a monitoringsystem 3824 configured to track distribution of consumables units fromthe one or more containers, such as by tracking when a consumable unitis dispensed or detecting a retrieval of one of the consumable unitsthat has been dispensed by the base 3804 or one of the containers 3802.This may include any suitable device or systems including a camera,touch sensors, beam-breaking detection, a pressure or weight sensor, andso forth.

The base 3804 may generate a notification under a variety of conditionsand transmit the notification through a variety of channels. Forexample, the base 3804 may provide a notification that a consumable unithas been dispensed from the base 3804, which may be sent to a remotehealthcare system or any other suitable recipient. The notification mayalso or instead include a notification (e.g., to a healthcare system)when a consumable unit is retrieved after dispensing. A notification mayalso or instead be generated to alert the user of a dosage in theschedule 3818. In another aspect, the notification may include acompliance report concerning the schedule 3818, which may becommunicated to one or more third parties such as a healthcare provideror any other user-designated contact.

The notification may be based on a tiered notification scheme. Forexample, a first notification may be an alert to the user when a dosageis due. A second notification may be an alert to the user when thedosage is missed within or after a predetermined time interval of ascheduled time for the dosage. A third notification may be an alert tothe user when the user does not respond to the prior alert within apredetermined time. The third notification may also include anotification to any suitable notification processing system, which mayreside for example in the remote resource 3808, to contact the user. Thenotification processing system may include a call center, an automatedtriage system, an automated message routing system, an instant messagingcenter, a customer service center, or any other system for automated orhuman response. In another aspect, the third notification may betransmitted to a health care professional or to a predetermined contactfor the user. More generally, the systems described herein may beconfigured to use notification states that escalate based on triggerevents, such as by providing a sequence of escalating notificationsusing a number of different communication mediums according todeviations from the schedule 3818.

The base 3804 may provide a notification through any suitablenotification hardware 3850 for local notification such as a buzzer, aspeaker, a display, a projector, or a light-emitting diode. Theprojector may be a video projector or laser system that can project awritten or graphic notification on nearby surfaces. In another aspect,the notification may include a text message, an electronic mail, atelephone message, or any other form of message or communication, whichmay be generated directly by the base 3804 or generated indirectlythrough the remote resource 3808 in response to the schedule 3818 or asignal from the base 3804.

In a general sense, the base 3804 may transmit any user-configurednotification to any user-selected entity at any time, such as when aconsumable unit is dispensed or retrieved. In one aspect, the base 3804may include a notification system that is remotely configurable by athird party to provide one or more notifications according to deviationsfrom the schedule 3818.

While a single base 3804 is depicted in the figure, it will beunderstood that the system 3800 may include any number of bases, eachstoring a schedule. These bases and schedules may be for a single user,or for a number of different users, with the association betweenparticular users and bases being flexibly configurable as describedherein. As described herein, a server for managing bases may be providedas a remote resource, or hosted on one of the bases, or some combinationof these.

The network interface 3806 may be any suitable interface for couplingthe base 3804 in a communicating relationship with the data network 3810and various devices coupled thereto. In one aspect, communicationsbetween the base 3804 and the remote resource 3808 may use 256 bitencryption or any other strength or type of security mandated byregulation or health care best practices.

The remote resource 3808 may be any remote computing facility orcombination of facilities including cloud computing resources,databases, remote applications, and so forth. The remote resource 3808may for example, be a resource provided by a participant in a healthcaresystem such as a health care provider system, a health insuranceprovider system, a retailer, a pharmacy, a patient group, a consumergroup, or any other group or organization. The base 3804 may provide theschedule 3818, or information about the schedule, to the remote resource3808, which may be configured to provide a notification based on theschedule 3818. This may, for example, be a notification that a scheduleditem has been missed, that a scheduled item is upcoming, that ascheduled item has been completed, and so forth.

In one aspect, the remote resource 3808 may include a server with amemory storing a number of schedules for dispensing consumables or otherdispensables to a number of users. The server may provide an interfacesuch as a web-based user interface for updating one of the schedules,such as any of the management interfaces described herein.

In one aspect, the remote resource 3808 may host an order fulfillmentsystem that compares a numeric count of the consumable units in thecontainers 3802 to the schedule 3818 to determine when replacementconsumables should be ordered for a user. For example, the base 3804 mayperiodically inventory contents of the containers 3802 and providerelevant information concerning current counts, remaining time withcurrent inventory, and the like to the remote resource 3808. It will beappreciated that the order fulfillment system may also or instead behosted on the processor 3812 of the base 3804, or distributed or sharedin any other suitable manner. The order fulfillment system may beconfigured to automatically place an order for a replacement container,or an order for replacement consumables in bulk form that can be used torefill one of the containers. Similarly, the order fulfillment systemmay be configured to notify the user to order a replacement container orreplacement consumables in bulk form.

In another aspect, the remote resource 3808 may include a remotemanagement system. The remote management system may generally beoperable to manage consumables at the base 3804 in a manner consistentwith expected uses according to the schedule 3818. Thus for example, theremote management system may identify a predetermined level in one ofthe containers 3803, which may be any level suitable for action. Thepredetermined level may be specified as a state such as full, low, emptyand so forth, or as a percentage full, a number of doses remaining, orin any other suitable manner. When the predetermined level has beendetermined, the remote management system may take appropriate next stepssuch as determining whether a prescription for the user includesadditional dosages for a type of medication in the one of the one ormore containers, e.g., by retrieving prescription information for theuser from another remote resource or from the memory 3816 of the base3804. With this information, the remote management system may provide aprescription verification based upon which the remote management systemcan initiate a variety of additional steps. For example, the remotemanagement system may initiate a managed care billing request for areplacement container, a payment from the user for the replacementcontainer, or placement of an order for the replacement container with avendor. The remote management system may similarly initiate a billingrequest, payment, or order for a bulk consumable to refill one of thecontainers 3802.

In another aspect, the remote management system may provide a variety ofother prescription-related or compliance-related functions. For example,the remote management system may monitor compliance for the useraccording to one or more prescriptions from one or more health careproviders, which may be included from the schedule 3818 or retrievedfrom the health care providers. As another example, the remotemanagement system may compare various prescriptions from health careproviders to ensure compatibility of the one or more prescriptions for aparticular user. The remote management system may also or insteadcompare consumable units in the schedule for drug interactions based ondata from one or more of warning databases, government sources, druglabel information, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare groups, healthcare providers, and patient groups. In another aspect, the remotemanagement system may monitor consumable units dispensed from all of thecontainers registered with the base to the user to determine an actualmedication regime for the user, and to check counter-indications withinthe actual medication regime. The remote management system may beconfigured to generate an alert to a healthcare provider or some otherpredetermined contact for a counter-indication identified within theschedule 3818. This approach to counter-indications advantageouslyensures that all medications are accounted for by centralizing trackingat a single location.

The remote management system, aspects of which may also be realized as amanagement system on the base, may be configured to manage the schedule3818. The management system may also control the security lock 3840 toprevent dispensation of a consumable unit prior to a correspondingdosage in the schedule 3818. In another aspect, the management systemmay track an expiration date for the consumable units in the containers3802, and control the security lock to prevent dispensation ofconsumables after they have expired. Where the consumable units includemedicine such as a prescription medicine or an over-the-countermedicine, the management system may control the security lock 3840specifically to prevent overdosing with such medicine.

Similarly, the remote resource 3808 may provide a server for variousother functions within the system 3800. For example, the base 3804 maybe configured to receive an update to the schedule 3818 from the server,thus permitting cloud-based management of the schedule 3818 to provide alocation-independent scheduling resource. In another aspect, the remoteresource 3808 may provide a server configured to controllably associatethe base 3804 (or a number of bases) with a user to provide anassociated base. More generally, the base 3804 may be associated withany number of users and any number of bases may be associated with aparticular user. These mappings may be stored by and managed through theserver, e.g., using the various interfaces described herein.

When the base 3804 becomes an “associated base” that is associated witha user, the base 3804 may respond to the association in numerous waysconsistent with operating the associated base for the user. For example,the associated base may retrieve a schedule for the user, or evaluatecontents of dispensers physically associated with the base foravailability of consumables indicated in a schedule for the user. Theassociated base may then more generally operate as contemplated herein,such as by generating a notification to a user when a consumable in anassociated dispenser is at a predetermined level (such as low or empty),automatically dispensing a consumable in response to the schedule 3818,or monitoring compliance of the user with the schedule 3818. The base3804 may also notify the server or relevant events such as a change inconfiguration of dispensers or containers physically associated with thebase 3804 (e.g., insertion or removal of a dispenser) and the server mayperform management functions such as requesting a change inconfiguration of the dispensers, e.g., according to the schedule 3818.

In another aspect, the remote resource 3808 may include a financialprocessing system to support payment processing for various actionsrelated to the schedule 3818 or the user. For example, the financialprocessing system may be configured to initiate a payment authorizationfrom the user for a replacement container, a payment authorization froma health insurance provider for the replacement container, or a paymentauthorization from a third party pay or other than a health insurer forthe replacement container.

In another aspect, the remote resource 3808 may include a goal settingplatform configured to receive a goal of a user and provide reminders tothe user related to the consumable units in the containers 3802. Thenotification may include a reminder related to the goal and unrelated tothe consumables, or a reminder related to the goal and related to theconsumables, or any other suitable reminder. The goal setting platformmay also usefully be hosted on the processor 3812 of the base station3804 for local execution.

The data network 3810 may include any network(s) or internetwork(s)suitable for communicating data and control information amongparticipants in the system 3800. This may include public networks suchas the Internet, private networks, telecommunications networks such asthe Public Switched Telephone Network or cellular networks using thirdgeneration (e.g., 3G or IMT-2000), fourth generation (e.g., LTE (E-UTRA)or WiMax-Advanced (IEEE 802.16m), as well as any of a variety ofcorporate area or local area networks and other switches, routers, hubs,gateways, and the like that might be used to carry data amongparticipants in the system 3800. Components linked through the datanetwork 3810 may be linked through a public network such as theInternet, or through a local area network or other local communicationlink.

The slots 3814 may include any electromechanical interface for removablyand replaceably receiving containers 3802. The slots 3814 may includeactive components that communicate with a security lock 3840 to controlremoval and replacement of containers 3802, or to control dispensationof consumable units from the containers 3802. Where the containers 3802include sensors, memory, processing, and the like, the slots 3814 mayalso include an electrical interface for coupling the containers 3802 ina communicating relationship with the base 3804. In this manner, whenthe containers 3802 are placed into the slots 3814, the containers 3802may provide status information to, or receive programming and data suchas scheduling information from, the base 3804. While the base 3804 isgenerally described as a multi-container device, it will be understoodthat the various features and functions of the base 3804 as describedherein may usefully be incorporated into a single dispenser ofconsumables. As such, the base 3804 may be a dispenser housing a singlecontainer and including a user input to dispense the consumable unitsfrom the single container in unit form. This may be any of thecartridges or other dispenser described above, or any other suitableunit dispenser of consumables or other dispensables. Similarly, thecontainer 3802 described herein may include a dispenser configured todispense individual ones of the plurality of consumable unitsindependently from the base 3804, that is without being couple to orcontrolled by the base 3804.

The schedule 3818 may be any schedule useful for operating the base 3804or the containers 3802, or for coordinating operation of the foregoingwith requirements of a user or a third party such as a health careprofessional. For example, the schedule 3818 may be a user-createddosing schedule. The first remote device 3820 may automatically generatea change to the schedule 3818 using any appropriate rules, algorithms,or other constraints. For example, the first remote device 3820 mayprovide counter-indication screening. In response to an update tocounter-indication data provided by a pharmaceutical company, healthcare provider, government agency or the like, the first remote device3820 may automatically screen for counter-indications in the schedule3818 and mitigate conflicts as appropriate. As another example, thefirst remote device 3820 may receiving data from the base 3804concerning actual dosing distributed from the containers 3802 and updatethe schedule 3818 accordingly. More generally, a variety of automatedupdates may be supported using any events that can be detected by thefirst remote device 3820 including event identified by a health careprovider, events detected at a locale of the base 3804, events detectedby other online resources, and so forth.

The second remote device 3822 may in general be any remote devicecoupled to and participating in a dispensable management system such asthe system 3800 described herein. In one aspect, the second remotedevice 3822 may be a mobile device such as a smart phone or wearablecomputing device associated with the user and configured to receive thenotification. In another aspect, the second remote device 3822 may be awearable accessory such as a bracelet, pendant, or earpiece associatedwith the user and configured to receive the notification. In eithercase, the device 3822 may receive a notification remotely through thedata network 3810 or locally, such as through a local area network ordirect short range communication with the base 3804. A wearableaccessory may be associated with the user or with the base 3804, and mayusefully provide a two-way communication system for the user to provideinformation to the base 3804, and for the user to receive notificationsfrom the base 3804, e.g., about the schedule 3818, contents of thecontainers 3802, and so forth.

While described as being stored in a memory of the base 3804, it will beunderstood that the schedule 3818 may also or instead be hosted atanother location such as the remote resource 3808, which may in thiscase be another computer owned by the user, a schedule managementsystem, a data repository, another base associated with the user, ahealthcare provider system, and so forth.

In one aspect, the first remote device 3820 and the second remote device3822 may be accessories for use by users in managing and using theschedule 3818. For example, the first accessory may be couple in acommunicating relationship with a server (e.g., a server hosted on thebase 3804 or on the remote resource 3808) and configured to provide anotification to a user based on a schedule associated with the user,such as the schedule 3818. This accessory may be a wearable accessorysuch as a bracelet, pendant, watch, or the like, and may be configuredto receive an input from a wearer to dispense a consumable from one ofthe containers 3802. The first accessory may include a sensor 3821 suchas a biometric sensor configured to capture biometric data of a wearer.This may include information used for biometric identification orauthorization, or this may include health and fitness information suchas a heart rate, blood pressure, or any other useful information thatmight be obtained from a wearer using sensors on the accessory. Inanother aspect, the sensor 3821 may include a location sensor (e.g.,GPS, proximity sensor, WiFi positional sensor, or the like) configuredto determine a location of the wearer. Information obtained from thesensor 3821 may be transmitted from the accessory to any suitablelocation, such as the base 3804, the remote resource 3808, or any otherserver or other data repository or the like. The first accessory may beassociated with numerous users, and may include detection circuitry todetermine which one of a number of users is wearing or operating theaccessory.

The second remote device 3822 may be a second accessory similarlycoupled to the system 3800 and configured to communicate a notificationfrom the second accessory to the first accessory. In this manner, athird party such as a friend, family member, or health care provider maysignal a user through the interconnected accessories to consume one ofthe consumables in one of the containers 3802 at any desired interval,either as a reminder from a preexisting schedule or as an ad hoc dosageindication. In another aspect, the second accessory may be associatedwith the user. It will be understood that both accessories may beintended for use by the user, or one of the accessories may beassociated with the user and intended for use by a third party. In thismanner, the third party may use the second accessory for any suitablenotifications to the user. Similarly, the second accessory mayassociated with a number of different users to facilitate, e.g., groupnotification or management of group schedules.

In one aspect, the base 3804, the remote resource 3808, or somecombination of these may be configured as a messaging system to supportcommunications and synchronization among various bases, containers,dispensers, accessories and other devices associated with a user.

The system may include a management interface 3830 including a graphicalinterface for managing the schedule 3818 and related elements of thesystem 3800. The management interface 3830 may be hosted on the remoteresource 3808, the base 3804, or some other location, or combinations ofthese. The management interface 3830 may be deployed as a web interfaceor the like served by a web server hosted on the base 3830, or on theremote resource 3808, and remotely accessible through the data network3810. In one aspect, the base 3804 may include a display 3832 for localaccess to the management interface 3830 directly from the base 3804. Themanagement interface 3830 may be configured for various administrativefunctions. For example, the management interface 3830 may be configuredfor a user to modify the schedule 3818. The management interface 3830may also or instead be configured to limit modifications to the scheduleto authenticated individuals, qualified healthcare professionals (whichmay be authenticated), or an electronic healthcare informationtechnology system, or any combination of these or other users orsystems. In another aspect, the management interface 3830 may beconfigured to display compliance information, e.g., to any of theforegoing users.

In another aspect, the management interface may provide an interface formodifying an association of a user with the base 3804. In general, abase 3804 may have any number of users associated with it, with theschedule of each user maintained in the memory 3816 of the base 3804 orany other suitable location, such as the remote resource 3808. Thisassociation may be controlled to add or remove users for the base 3804,or to add or remove associations of a particular user with a number ofbases. In either case, these associations may be used to updateschedules so that a particular base has suitable scheduling informationfor any and all associated users, and similarly so that a particularuser has appropriate scheduling information on any and all associatedbases.

The system 3800 may include a security lock 3840. In general, this maybe a physical locking mechanism such as any of the locking mechanismsdescribed herein to physically retain containers 3802 in the slots 3814or to providing authenticated access to containers 3802 or contentsthereof. This may also or instead include a virtual locking mechanismconfigured to secure data on the base 3804 or access to the data in thecontainers 3802. For example, the remote resource 3808 may be configuredto remotely lock the base 3804 to prevent dispensation of consumableunits from one or more of the containers 3802 using the security lock3840.

While depicted on the base 3804, it will be understood that the securitylock 3840 may also or instead be on an individual container 3802, or onthe remote resource 3808, or distributed in any suitable manner amongthese system components. In one aspect, the security lock 3840 mayrequire authentication of a user as a condition for dispensation of oneof the consumable units from one of the containers 3802. The securitylock 3840 may include any of a variety of inputs. For example, thesecurity lock 3840 may include a user input on the base 3804 operable tounlock one of the containers 3802 in response to a user input when thecontainer 3802 is coupled to the base 3804. In another aspect, thesecurity lock 3840 may include a user input on the container 3802 (whichmay be a simple container or a cartridge as described above) to unlockthe container 3802 in response to a user input.

Regardless of location, the security lock 3840 may include a variety ofinterfaces. For example, the security lock 3840 may include a keypadconfigured for passcode authentication of the user. The security lock3840 may also or instead include a biometric system for authenticatingthe user such as a voice recognition user interface for voiceauthentication, a facial recognition system, a fingerprintidentification system, an iris scanner, or the like.

The security lock 3840 may authenticate the user with reference to theremote resource 3808, which may provide information about the user oroperate as a trusted certificate authority or the like. In one aspect,the remote resource 3808 may include a data repository for electronicmedical records that can be used in authenticating the user. Thesecurity lock 3840 may be controlled remotely, e.g., through the datanetwork 3810, to provide a remote controlled security lock for remotelycontrolling access to the consumable units in the containers 3802. Wherethe monitoring system 3824 includes a camera, the security lock 3840 maybe configured to respond to an access attempt by capturing an image withthe camera. The camera may be a digital still camera or a video cameradirected toward a location of an operator of an interface of thesecurity lock, such as an area in front of a keypad, where an image maybe captured to document access attempts. The image or images capturedfrom this camera may be processed using facial recognition software anda local or remote database for face recognition. This may be useful indetecting tampering or other improper uses, particularly in identifyingan operator where an authentication fails. Further actuations andprocessing may be triggered by successful or unsuccessful authenticationand security unlocking, including but not limited to audio alarms,visual alarms, physical device movements, physical lockdowns, andelectrical jolts or shocks.

The security lock 3840 may provide additional locking, security, orauthentication related functions. For example, where the container 3802is a dispenser with a user input for manual activation of a dispensingmechanism, the security lock 3840 may control activation of the userinput. Where the container 3802 is a dispenser with a machine input forremote machine activation of a dispensing mechanism (e.g., from a baseto which the container 3802 is coupled), then the security lock 3840 maycontrol activation of the machine input. The security lock 3840 may alsoor instead require authentication of a user as a condition for removingone of the containers 3802 from the base.

A container, dispenser, and/or base may perform self-diagnostics,including but not limited to checking cleanliness and residue, checkingdigital memory faults, checking onboard data against redundant datasources both local and remote, power supply tests, and battery tests.The device may perform such diagnostics either as an individual, or byutilizing other local and remote devices and resources that areconnected to it. The device may also perform such diagnostics upon user,environmental, or self-created triggers. Thus the device and any othersystem devices previously described in previous paragraphs may form aself-regulating, self-testing, and self-reliant dispensables system thatmay require no manual or user input to drive its diagnosticfunctionality.

Furthermore, such self-reliance of this dispensables system maytranslate beyond diagnostic functionality to the full set offunctionality described in this document. An illustrative example is adispensing device described herein, which provides doses of consumablesto a user automatically based on an environmental trigger, such asdevelopment of an illness, instead of manually.

FIG. 39 shows a method for synchronizing scheduling data anddispensables data among various devices. In general, the method 3900 maybe used to synchronize data during periodic removals and replacements ofcartridges, containers and the like into bases.

As shown in step 3902, the method 3900 may begin with detecting aninsertion of a cartridge containing consumables into a base. This may,for example, be any of the cartridges, consumables, and bases describedherein. The cartridge, for example, may include an integrated dispensingcartridge, or a container for consumables with a removable andreplaceable housing for the container that provides anelectro-mechanical interface configured to removably and replaceablycouple to the base, such as any of the clip/cartridge combinationsdescribed above. In another aspect, this cartridge referred to hereinmay be a simple container of consumables or other dispensables that canbe inserted into the base. The insertion may be detected, e.g., throughelectrical contact with two or more exposed conductive surfaces,activation of a mechanical switch, plunger, or the like, or throughother means such as optical detection using a camera or an optical beamand sensor. However detected, the detection may cause a processor on thebase or other processing circuitry to initiate a number of steps toincorporate the inserted cartridge into the resources of the base.

As shown in step 3904, the method 3900 may include reading the contentsof the detected cartridge. This may for example, include reading anumeric amount of the consumables from the cartridge and communicatingthe numeric amount to the base. This may for example including readingdata from a memory in the cartridge or directly from a memory in a clipthat holds the cartridge, or using sensors or the like to detect acurrent numeric amount in a reservoir of the cartridge. While numericcount is one useful property of cartridge contents, this may also orinstead include reading any other information about the cartridge suchas a type of contents, a percentage fullness, a cartridge identifier, anexpiration date of contents, and so forth. In general, such informationmay be directly encoded in a memory of the cartridge for access by thebase, or amenable to detection through sensors or the like on thecartridge, an associated clip, or the base itself.

However determined, this information may then be communicated to thebase using any suitable communications interface. While the insertion ofthe cartridge into the base makes wired contacts and corresponding wiredcommunications convenient, it will be understood that this communicationmay also or instead including wireless communication using WiFi, nearfield communications, radio frequency identification tag technology, orany other non-contact communication techniques.

As shown in step 3906, the method 3900 may include reading informationfrom the base for communication to the cartridge. For example, this mayinclude reading a schedule for medication or other dispensables from thebase (e.g., from a memory of the base) and communicating a portion ofthe schedule relating to the consumables in the cartridge to thecartridge. It will be understood that the entire schedule may also besent to the cartridge, such as for porting the schedule to anotherlocation. However, the portion relating to the consumables permits thecartridge to operate independently as a dispenser for the consumablesaccording to the schedule, and the base, which contains or has access tobroader, more integrated information about a dispensables plan for auser may usefully update the schedule on the cartridge as the overallschedule changes. This information may be communicated to the cartridgeusing any suitable communications interface.

After this exchange of information—numeric count to base and schedule tocartridge—a variety of other functions may usefully be performed.

As shown in step 3908, the method 3900 may include storing the scheduleand the numeric amount of consumables, along with any other information,in a memory independent from the base for independent operation of thecartridge when uncoupled from the base. In one aspect, this may includea memory of the cartridge. In another aspect, this may include aremotely accessible memory store that the cartridge can access, e.g.,through a wireless or cellular network, or when connected to other basesnot associated with the user.

As shown in step 3910, the method 3900 may include presenting cartridgeinformation such as a numeric count to a user. This may, for example,include providing an audio output including the numeric count in spokenform or displaying the numeric amount on a display of the cartridge orthe base. Thus, when a cartridge is connected, the cartridge may displaythe numeric account, and the base may issue an audible notification inspoken form, such as “this cartridge contains five units.” Where thedispensable type is also available, either directly from the cartridgeor based on an identifier for the cartridge, this may be a more completestatement of the status of the cartridge such as “this cartridgecontains five units of aspirin which will expire on Jan. 3, 2015.”

As shown in step 3912, the method 3900 may include issuing anotification from the cartridge based upon the predetermined schedule.This may include any useful notification including local notificationssuch as a display, a sound, or a vibration from the cartridge itself, ora notification to the user through some other communication medium suchas instant messaging, electronic mail, or the like.

FIG. 40 shows a method for managing user associations with systemcomponents. In general, the method 4000 may include a variety ofsynchronization and coordination steps managed, e.g., by a server hostedon a base or a remote resource.

As shown in step 4002, the method 4000 may begin with receiving aschedule for dispensing consumables to a user. In one aspect, a user mayprovide the file as a schedule file, or create the schedule in a userinterface. In another aspect, the schedule may be received from a baseor other device. For example, this may include a communication manuallyinitiated by a user, or an automatic communication that is periodicallytransmitted to update the schedule, or initiated in response to an eventsuch as when a base joins the system, becomes associated with a user,receives a schedule change, or the like. In general, this may alsoinclude receiving a user-generated update to the schedule to create anupdated schedule that can be transmitted to the base for execution asgenerally described below.

As shown in step 4004, the method 4000 may include receiving anassociation of a base with the user, such as through an input to amanagement interface or the like as described herein.

As shown in step 4006, the method 4000 may include transmitting theschedule to the base. Thus, when an association is detected, theassociated base can be configured to execute a schedule for theassociated user. As generally described herein, the base may be operableto execute the schedule by providing notifications to the user and bydispensing unit form dispensables such as consumables from containersthat are removable from and replaceable to the base. As used in thiscontext, it will be understood that the containers may be simplecontainers, cartridges, and/or cartridge/clip combinations as describedherein.

As shown in step 4008, the method 400 may include receiving data fromthe base characterizing a type and quantity of consumables in each ofthe containers, along with any other information that might be usefullyprovided from the containers and/or base.

As shown in step 4010, the method 4000 may include executing theschedule from the base. As described herein, this may include providinglocal notifications, communicating notifications to other devices,automatically or manually dispensing items, monitoring compliance, andso forth.

As shown in step 4012, the method 4000 may include communicating withaccessories such as a mobile device (e.g., smart phone, tablet) or awearable accessory associated with the user. In one aspect, this mayinclude transmitting a notification from the schedule to any device suchas a mobile device or wearable accessory associated with the user.Similarly, this may include receiving an instruction from the mobiledevice or wearable accessory, such as an instruction to dispense aconsumable from one of the containers coupled to the base.

As shown in step 4014, the method 4000 may include monitoring the base,along with the contents of containers associated with the base. Forexample, this may include determining when one of the containers needsto be replaced or refilled base on the schedule, along with datareceived from the base characterizing the type and quantity ofconsumables in the containers, and then generating a notification to theuser to replace the corresponding container(s). Similarly, this mayinclude automatically ordering a replacement for one of the containers,or for bulk consumables to refill the container. Automatic ordering mayinclude any suitable, computer-coordinated interactions with appropriateapproval, fulfillment, and payment platforms such as those describedherein. This may also include determining when the base needs to bereconfigured, e.g., with the addition, removal, replacement, orrefilling of containers. Fulfillment may include but is not limited tohuman-driven and drone delivery methods.

According to the foregoing, a method disclosed herein includes detectingan insertion of a cartridge containing consumable units into a base;reading a numeric amount of the consumable units from the cartridge andcommunicating the numeric amount to the base; and reading apredetermined schedule for medication from the base and communicating aportion of the predetermined schedule relating to the consumable unitsin the cartridge to the cartridge.

It will be appreciated that the methods and systems described above mayserve as a platform for a wide array of enhancements and relatedfeatures, any of which may be usefully combined with the above. A numberof examples are provided below by way of non-limiting example. In oneaspect, there is disclosed herein a connection mechanism between aconsumable container and a socket on a base station, that (a) has alock-and-key to securely attach container to the socket and (b) storesdigital information about container properties on container in anencrypted/unencrypted data format, that is read by the socket uniquelyto prevent misdosing and miscommunication of container properties.

In another aspect, any of the foregoing may include pharmaceuticalpackaging or filling line that can (a) set cartridge's collar toaccommodate pill's specific size (b) attach cartridge data storagedevice (e.g. NFC sticker). In another aspect, a base may supportuser-specific authorization or authentication with respect to SKUs anddevices within various containers or cartridges of a base, with accessestablished by an account owner or an administrator. The managementsystem may provide a drag-and-drop interface to allocate doses,permissions, regimens, schedules and settings from one user, account ordevice to another. The interface may be deployed on a base, from a webserver, from a user computer, from a mobile device, or from any othersuitable hosting site.

In another aspect, the devices herein may use weight-based determinationof consumable volume or count in consumable container. In anotheraspect, the devices herein may include a pill maker for compression ofpills to manufacture pills from raw materials, as well as any othersuitable mixing, compounding, encapsulating, or other similar functions.

In another aspect, a system described herein supports schedulingconsumable use via queuing doses to be consumed on a per-user level, andallowing (a) access/modification to queues for specified 3rd parties,(b) categorization, sorting and filtering by consumable propertiesincluding indication, and (c) analytics. In another aspect, a systemdescribed herein may be configured for purchasing based on some or allof another user's historical purchase basket (“grabbing”), if that userhas shared their purchase history for “grabbing” purposes. In anotheraspect, the system described herein may be configured to support remoteaccess to dispensing and authorization functions of an electronicconsumable dispenser. In another aspect, the systems described hereinmay be configured to support remote authorization of consumabledispenser usage, particularly in pill compression, by 3rd parties,including but not limited to healthcare providers, officials andregulators.

In another aspect, the systems described herein may be used to provide avariety of notifications such as triggering consumable use alerts basedon (a) dose queuing (b) dosing requirements, such as need to take drugwith food (c) consumable misuse such as missed dose or overdose (d)unsafe drug interactions (e.g. Drug A and Drug B cause stomach bleedingif consumed within 24 hrs of each other). In another aspect, the systemsdescribed herein may be configured to support automatic reordering ofconsumable SKUs triggered by received data on SKU unit depletion ornear-depletion triggered by system data. In another aspect, systemsdisclosed herein may be configured to support prioritized communicationsin which online servers and in-home devices use prioritized bufferingand transmission to make sure key non-redundant data is transmittedfirst during any communication.

In another aspect, a central repository may be provided for checking ofpharmaceutical products against user data and healthcare information. Inanother aspect, the system may provide a universal consumable trackingsystem that (a) resolves between multiple consumable use devices (b)directly interfaces consumption of consumables to personal healthrecords and any other 3rd party health record systems. In anotheraspect, the system may provide a use processing engine and front endthat enables (a) game-ification of consumable usage (b) automatic andmanual consumable goal setting and recognition.

The methods or processes described above, and steps thereof, may berealized in hardware, software, or any combination of these suitable fora particular application. The hardware may include a general-purposecomputer and/or dedicated computing device. The processes may berealized in one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, embeddedmicrocontrollers, programmable digital signal processors, or otherprogrammable device, along with internal and/or external memory. Theprocesses may also, or instead, be embodied in an application specificintegrated circuit, a programmable gate array, programmable array logic,or any other device or combination of devices that may be configured toprocess electronic signals. It will further be appreciated that one ormore of the processes may be realized as computer executable codecreated using a structured programming language such as C, an objectoriented programming language such as C++, or any other high-level orlow-level programming language (including assembly languages, hardwaredescription languages, and database programming languages andtechnologies) that may be stored, compiled or interpreted to run on oneof the above devices, as well as heterogeneous combinations ofprocessors, processor architectures, or combinations of differenthardware and software.

Thus, in one aspect, each method or step described above andcombinations thereof may be realized as a computer program productcomprising computer executable code embodied in a computer readablemedium (such as a non-transitory computer readable medium) that, whenexecuting on one or more computing devices, performs the steps thereof.In another aspect, the methods may be embodied in systems that performthe steps thereof, and may be distributed across devices in a number ofways, or all of the functionality may be integrated into a dedicated,standalone device or other hardware. In another aspect, means forperforming the steps associated with the processes described above mayinclude any of the hardware and/or software described above. All suchpermutations and combinations are intended to fall within the scope ofthe present disclosure.

It should further be appreciated that the methods above are provided byway of example. Absent an explicit indication to the contrary, thedisclosed steps may be modified, supplemented, omitted, and/orre-ordered without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

The method steps of the disclosures(s) described herein are intended toinclude any suitable method of causing such method steps to beperformed, consistent with the patentability of the following claims,unless a different meaning is expressly provided or otherwise clear fromthe context. So for example performing the step of X includes anysuitable method for causing another party such as a remote user or aremote processing resource (e.g., a server or cloud computer) to performthe step of X. Similarly, performing steps X, Y and Z may include anymethod of directing or controlling any combination of such otherindividuals or resources to perform steps X, Y and Z to obtain thebenefit of such steps.

While particular embodiments of the present disclosure have been shownand described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art thatvarious changes and modifications in form and details may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosureand are intended to form a part of the inventive concepts describedherein.

1. A device comprising: a container configured to hold a plurality ofconsumable units; a mechanism to dispense individual doses of theplurality of consumable units from the container; a mechanical interfaceincluding one or more mechanical registration features to removably andreplaceably insert the device into a base; and a security lock requiringauthentication of a user as a condition for dispensation of one of theplurality of consumable units.
 2. The device of claim 1 furthercomprising a machine input actuatable by the base when the device isplaced for use in the base to activate the mechanism and dispense one ofthe plurality of consumable units.
 3. The device of claim 1 wherein thesecurity lock includes a user input on the base operable to unlock thedevice in response to a user input when the device is coupled to thebase.
 4. The device of claim 1 wherein the security lock includes a userinput on the container operable to unlock the device in response to auser input.
 5. The device of claim 1 wherein the security lock includesa keypad configured for passcode authentication of the user.
 6. Thedevice of claim 1 wherein the security lock includes a biometric systemfor authenticating the user.
 7. The device of claim 6 wherein thebiometric system includes a voice recognition user interface for voiceauthentication of the user.
 8. The device of claim 6 wherein thebiometric system includes a facial recognition system for authenticatingthe user.
 9. The device of claim 6 wherein the biometric system includesa fingerprint identification system for authenticating the user.
 10. Thedevice of claim 1 wherein the security lock authenticates the user withreference to a remote resource.
 11. The device of claim 10 wherein theremote resource includes a data repository for electronic medicalrecords.
 12. The device of claim 1 wherein the security lock includes aremote controlled security lock for remotely controlling access to theplurality of consumable units.
 13. The device of claim 1 furthercomprising a camera, wherein the security lock is configured to respondto an access attempt by capturing an image with the camera. 14.(canceled)
 15. The device of claim 13 wherein the camera is directedtoward a location of an operator of an interface of the security lock.16. The device of claim 1 further comprising a management systemconfigured to manage a schedule for dispensing the plurality ofconsumable units from the device.
 17. The device of claim 16 wherein themanagement system controls the security lock to prevent dispensation ofone of the consumable units prior to a dosage in the schedule.
 18. Thedevice of claim 16 wherein the management system tracks an expirationdate for the plurality of consumables, the management system configuredto control the security lock to prevent dispensation of one of theconsumable units after the expiration date.
 19. The device of claim 16wherein the consumable units include a medicine, and wherein themanagement system tracks dispensation of the consumable units andcontrols the security lock to prevent overdosing with the medicine.20-23. (canceled)
 24. The device of claim 1 wherein the security lockrequires authentication of the user as a condition for removing thecontainer from the base.
 25. The device of claim 1 further comprising auser input to dispense one of the plurality of consumable units whendetached from the base. 26-53. (canceled)